Penn State cocaine ring suspects attorney warns of foolish move in alleged frat drug operation

Five men accused of being part of a cocaine distribution ring at Penn State filed court documents in , signaling plans to fight the charges against them.

Agostino Abbatiello, Mohammed Huraibi, Robert Zanolla, Thomas Robinson and Paul Robinson have each indicated they intend to plead not guilty as their cases move forward in Centre County court. The move comes despite testimony detailing kilogram-sized deals and a drug-packaging operation inside a fraternity house, though one of their attorneys warned it would be "foolish" to rush to judgment.

The Office of the Court Administrator said the five defendants waived their formal arraignments scheduled for Wednesday and will not appear at the Centre County Courthouse. Their next court appearance is scheduled for Nov. 16 for a pretrial conference.

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Abbatiello, Zanolla and Thomas Robinson requested jury trials on their waiver forms. Huraibi and Paul Robinson indicated they intend to plead not guilty but did not select either a jury or non-jury trial.

The five are among 14 people charged in the alleged operation, which prosecutors say used fraternity connections to move cocaine into State College before it was packaged and sold to Penn State students.

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Thomas Robinson, a former Delta Upsilon fraternity member, testified that he and Huraibi began buying cocaine from Abbatiello in 2023, starting with about 100 grams for roughly $4,000.

Robinson said the cocaine was stored in his fraternity room, where he and Huraibi broke it into half-gram bags and sold them for about $80 each.

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The quantities later grew to kilogram-sized purchases, Robinson testified. He said he eventually began buying directly from Abbatiello through Snapchat, where messages disappeared after 24 hours.

Huraibi also testified that he and Robinson bought cocaine in bulk to resell, initially packaging the drugs themselves before fraternity pledges became involved.

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Charging documents portray Abbatiello as a top-level supplier who allegedly used fraternity connections to distribute cocaine near Penn State. Zanolla is accused of helping make tri