A large drug ring allegedly operating on the Duke, Appalachian State and University of North Carolina Chapel Hill campuses has been busted by local and federal law enforcement authorities.
The bust, which was announced Thursday by the Orange County, North Carolina, Sheriff’s Office, said 21 people are facing charges involving the alleged funneling of thousands of pounds of marijuana, hundreds of kilos of cocaine and other drugs.
The drug trafficking investigation, conducted by a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration task force and the department, revealed alleged drug activity involving members of several fraternities and organizations at the universities. Matthew Martin, the U.S. attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina; Robert Murphy, special agent in charge of the DEA’s Atlanta field division; and Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood announced the charges.
While working a drug case several years ago, Orange County authorities said they received information about the sale of illegal drugs on the UNC Chapel Hill campus. A subsequent investigation found alleged drug activity involving the UNC chapters of Phi Gamma Delta, Kappa Sigma and Beta Theta Pi between 2017 and the spring of 2020.
Authorities said Thursday the total drug proceeds of the ring were more than $1.5 million.
Police said the suspects were shipping cocaine from California via U.S. mail and transporting marijuana by vehicle. Proceeds were transferred through money orders and Western Union.
“The amount of illegal narcotics being sold and used in this case was not only astonishing,” Blackwood said.
Of the 21 people charged, “many are either current or former students,” Martin said, according to WRAL. A few of them are from Duke, a few at App State and “the majority at UNC.”
The Department of Justice identified one primary supplier as Francisco Javier Ochoa Jr., 27, of Turlock, California. He has already been sentenced to six years in prison.
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