By Ben Fractenberg and Nicole Bode
DNAinfo Staff
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — A group of Columbia University students charged with running a drug ring out of their fraternity houses and dorm rooms were hit with a round of additional charges Tuesday, officials announced.
The five students and their three alleged drug suppliers had been charged with 30 counts of drug possession, drug sales, criminal nuisance and other charges after being swept up on Dec. 7, 2010 as part of the "Operation Ivy League" sting run by the NYPD and Special Narcotics Prosecutor’s Office.
The defendants, who were present in Manhattan Supreme Court Tuesday, now face a combined list of 65 counts of criminal charges after the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor obtained a search warrant to inspect all of the items seized from their dorm rooms, frat houses and apartments during the early-morning raids.
The students, Chris Coles, Harrison David, Adam Klein, Jose Stefan Perez; all 20, and Michael Wymbs, 22, allegedly dealt a host of drugs including MDMA, Ecstasy, LSD, Adderall and marijuana out of their dorm rooms or their rooms inside fraternities including Pi Kappa Alpha, Psi Upsilon, Alpha Epsilon Pi, officials said.
Undercover officers allegedly purchased almost $11,000 in drugs from the students during 31 separate drug buys on campus from July 2010 to December 7, 2010.
Coles and Davis allegedly told police after their arrests that they sold drugs to pay for their pricey tuition. All of the defendants pleaded not guilty to the updated indictment, and are all currently free on bail. They face up to 10 years in prison if convicted, officials said.
Their alleged drug suppliers, Roberto Lagares of Brooklyn and Miron Sarzynski and Megan Asper, of the East Village, were also arrested and charged. Sarzynski faces an additional charge of trying to enlist an undercover officer to allegedly kidnap and torture a pair rival drug dealers.
The students are due back in court April 5.
