Invincible, Above the Law, & Dangerous: Why the Sigma Chi & Delta Upsilon Drug Operations Shouldn’t Surprise Anyone

“This column is not an anti-fraternity argument. It is, more precisely, a reminder that we must empower our members and aspirants not to accept or encourage these dangerous, unhealthy, and abnormal practices.“ – Dr. Jason L. Meriwether

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What should be an unbelievable fraternity incident is, sadly, no surprise at all. The drug trafficking arrests involving these fraternity members are the culmination of unchecked power structures, feelings of invincibility, and lack of accountability. As Pennsylvania Attorney General, Dave Sunday, outlined the investigation and charges filed against 13 current or former Penn State students operating a cocaine-trafficking ring, along with a father, Paul Robinson, charged with evidence tampering and hindering an investigation, two familiar players enter the fray: Sigma Chi and Delta Upsilon. 

As the details of the drug operation were outlined by the AG, most compelling is the role of pledges in both chapters, who, according to AG Sunday, were routinely cutting and bagging cocaine as part of their new member initiation. According to AG Sunday, “this was a coordinated and highly profitable drug-trafficking crew revolving around two senior members of the fraternities, other fraternity brothers, and pledges.”

Nothing New Under The Sun

For readers who may be surprised, it is important to remember there is often nothing new under the proverbial sun. 

In 2020, 21 people, including numerous fraternity members, were charged by federal prosecutors for orchestrating a cocaine and marijuana funneling system that stretched across Duke University, Appalachian State University, and the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill.  Phi Gamma Delta, Beta Theta Pi, and Kappa Sigma fraternities were operating a $1.5 million enterprise, according to US Attorney Matthew G.T. Martin, who explained the danger of fraternal culture at these universities. 

Described as “protected by wealthy parents, the best lawyers, and a “boys will be boys” culture”, a 2016 fraternity-run drug enterprise became the subject of the book, Among the Bros, by Max Marshall. The Kappa Alpha Fraternity at the College of Charleston ran an operation worth millions of dollars, built on selling and shipping counterfeit Xanax pills along with cocaine, marijuana, and a range of illegal drugs. Marshall’s book and surrounding news coverage discuss the local chapter’s weed and alcohol fueled hazing rituals.

Calling Out the Bad Behavior 

The direct involvement of fraternity pledges as far back as 2023 in this recent Penn State incident demonstrates a frightening scale of hazing. AG Sunday describes, “a pattern of events that showed cutting and bagging cocaine was, for some pledges, an indoctrination into the Delta Upsilon and Sigma Chi fraternities.” 

AG Sunday described this operation as “upper-level trafficking,” noting that “there was nothing junior or childlike about this type of conduct.” His words merit applause because he both establishes that hazing was a significant element of the crimes and concurrently eschews the typical “boys will be boys” arguments that often yield light sentencing in hazing cases. 

Bystander Intervention 

Peer and bystander intervention, a prescriptive method of confronting bad behavior in real time, can help students respond when facing these vile hazing situations. Incoming members must not fall so completely into the “Greek Think” phenomenon, described by Hank Nuwer as the value for group practices above any sense of wrongdoing, that a drug-packaging operation is normalized. Greater responsibility falls upon current members who have participated in or granted tacit approval to the bad behavior. 

Alan Berkowitz developed a model for bystander intervention as a sexual assault prevention strategy for fraternity men, which I adapted into a peer intervention model for hazing prevention. This approach trains fraternity men about the risks and dangers of hazing through actionable role-play and earnest risk-versus-reward discussions. StopHazing also provides a robust Bystander Intervention Guide that helps the reader develop their own personal plan of action to engage peers in real-time when facing a hazing situation. 

Strengthen Oversight & Governance

After the 2017 death of Tim Piazza, caused by alcohol-fueled hazing within Beta Theta Pi Fraternity, Penn State and the Piazza family reached an agreement in January of 2019, setting standards for “increased accountability and safety in Greek-life organizations, alcohol control, bystander intervention education, transparency about violations and sanctions and culture change among fraternities and sororities.”

Following a previous campus suspension, the local Sigma Chi chapter joined a group of independent fraternities in March of 2025, forming the State College Interfraternity Council (SCIFC). This arrangement placed these three chapters outside of university affiliation. Former Sigma Chi chapter president, Sam Lanza, admitted, “we want our chapter to be free from the compliance environment that has existed since the Piazza agreement went into place.” 

Tim Piazza’s family offered stern warnings about the independent council structure in 2025, describing it as “dangerous.” Jim Piazza strongly urged parents to discourage their children from participating in these independent chapter & council arrangements. Those concerns have proven to be accurate. 

Concurrently, the University of New Mexico released a statement discouraging its students from participating in or considering unrecognized organizations, including their local chapter of Sigma Chi. The University’s Fraternity & Sorority Life Office encouraged students to consider “their own safety and to ensure a University-sanctioned experience.” Penn State has taken similar positions     .  

Higher education leaders must take more aggressive approaches to halting independent chapters and councils. This includes continued public discouragement, mandating university oversight, pursuing legislative recourse to ban all independent organizations’ access to the university, and collaborating with national organizations and families of students lost to hazing to disband local chapters that do not fall under the control of the campus.  Leaders of national fraternities must publicly repudiate chapters that exist outside of university control and authority and pursue national disaffiliation of any members of the organization who exist as part of these independent systems. National organization leaders could strengthen this position by establishing public rosters of recognized and non-recognized members while concurrently collaborating with university leaders and parents who champion hazing prevention to pursue legislative measures to end this element of chapter operation. 

Pursuit of all avenues to cease these elements of Greek Life outpaces any fear of litigation or liability. Simply stated, the risk is not worth the result if Greek Letter Organizations are not under a university’s umbrella to compel full cooperation with standards for education, governance, and compliance. The research-based Hazing Prevention Framework prioritizes commitment, “investment of human, financial, and structural resources and public endorsement of actions to foster a campus climate that is inhospitable to hazing” as the first of eight components of hazing prevention. Campus leaders must prioritize such commitment as visible      action, not just a talking point.

Conclusion 

This column is not an anti-fraternity argument. It is, more precisely, a reminder that we must empower our members and aspirants not to accept or encourage these dangerous, unhealthy, and abnormal practices. Concurrently, university and national fraternity leaders must focus their efforts on dismantling independent fraternal structures. It is not too late to prevent the next hazing-related injury, death, or drug trafficking enterprise.