The massive undercover drug raid of San Diego State University nicknamed, Operation Sudden Fall, took place on the campus Tuesday May 6th resulting in the arrest of almost 100 people, the majority of which were San Diego University Students.
The year long investigation was prompted by the death of a young student in 2007 who died of a lethal combination of cocain and alcohol. The young woman’s name was Jenny Poliakoff who was 19 years old at the time of her death. Her family including parents Ray and Kim Poliakoff and her brother Nate Poliakoff are very supportive of the raid and the resulting arrests.
Although her death was the catalyst for the year long undercover investigation, it was not with the intent of finding her supplier as that had already been done. The person who supplied her with the drugs that resulted in her death has already been convicted.
The numbers are changing with different news reports but remain staggering despite some discrepancies. News organizations agree that San Diego State University has suspended six fraternities at this time. According to one press report 75 of the 96 people arrested are students at SDSU.
The suspended fraternites include Theta Chi, Sigma Alpha Mu, Phi Kappa Theta, Phi Kappa Psi, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, and Lambda Chi Alpha.
The raids took place at nine different locations. One of the fraternities that was raided was Theta Chi where guns, cocaine, and ecstasy were discovered.
The president of the university, Stephen Weber, noted that all the SDSU students that were arrested were immedietely suspended form the university and any that were residing in campus managed housing were evicted.
Amazingly enough, several of the arrested SDSU students were majoring in fields that you would think would not take them down the path of drug dealing. One student was a criminal justice major who was found with 500 grams of cocaine and several guns. Another student was only one month away from their masters degree in Homeland Security and was also working as an employee of the campus police.
The Drug Enforcement Agency, DEA and the San Diego State University police infiltrated seven fraternities and discovered that almost all the members of the fraternities were aware of the drug dealing.
The students used text messaging as a means to communicate with many of their buyers, including sending out “sale” messages to them.
Some of the evidence recovered included 50 pounds of marijuana, marijuana plants, hash oil, methamphetamine, 4 pounds of cocaine, and prescription drugs. Also included were many different weapons and between $60,000 and $100,000 in cash.
