Nearly 100 Arrested in San Diego State Drug Sting

From today's LA Times:

SAN DIEGO -- Ninety-six people have been arrested, including 75 students, after a six-month undercover drug investigation centering on San Diego State University, the district attorney's office announced today.

Seven fraternity houses were infiltrated by undercover agents, authorities said. Agents allegedly discovered evidence of widespread drug-dealing among some fraternity members. Drugs involved included marijuana, cocaine and the drug Ecstasy.

The investigation, called Operation Sudden Fall, began after an overdose by a female student at the university, authorities said. During the investigation, a second student, at San Diego Mesa College, also died of an overdose. Some 130 drug purchases were made during the investigation.

"Our children are our biggest asset and absent a safe, drug-free learning environment, their chances of succeeding are greatly diminished," said Ralph W. Partridge, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration in San Diego. "The university police and SDSU administration are to be commended for their swift actions in confronting the drug use problem on campus."

Having just sat through a discussion of the use of "criminal street gang" prosecution enhancement laws this weekend, I can't resist noting that prosecutors could -- if they chose to do so -- easily prosecute the members of these fraternities for having acted on behalf of a "gang." All that's required under Penal Code section 186.22 is to show that the members of a group have "a common name or identifying sign or symbol," that a primary activity of its members is the commission of drug crime, and that the members have engaged in a pattern of criminal activity. It would be outrageous, of course, if prosecutors were actually to do this, but the law is written so loosely that it can be used to slap extremely serious sanctions on people with very little evidence to support those sanctions.

Update: A follow-up post is here.

Comments

[joe]

Mass arrests of students makes no sense. This doesn't get at the root of the problem. If drug enforcement were to target colleges, they could arrest tens of thousands of freshmen a year, but what would this accomplish? I hope the attorneys who are representing these college students are capable enough to get these kids of so that the loosely written drug, gang and three strike laws don't ruin their futures.

[Carlyle Moulton]

Maybe people who oppose the drug laws should lobby the prosecutors and judges as loudly as possible for the severest charges including gang enhancements and for draconian sentences of the type handed out to poor blacks in the infamous Tulia Texas cocaine prosecutions.

Wrecking the life of one nice white boy would do more to turn the righteous against the drug law madness than would the same thing happening to 100 poor blacks or Hispanics.

It is long past time to recognize that racial malice is a significant driver of the war on drugs. In war, everything that happens is the fault of the enemy, but the reason that resistance to the drug war is so low is that all the harm is happening to the enemy. Now if our own artillary would start hitting our own people maybe that would change.