Penn State Coke Ring Leader's Brother Charged

The younger brother of the man Pennsylvania prosecutors call the head of a Penn State cocaine trafficking ring has himself been charged with cocaine possession, PennLive reported.

Sebastiano M. Abbatiello, 20, of New York, was charged by summons after Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission officers stopped the pontoon boat he was operating on a Centre County lake on July 10 and said they found two grams of cocaine in his wallet.

The charges are unrelated to the fraternity drug case that has engulfed the university. His brother, Agostino S. Abbatiello, 24, a former Penn State student and Sigma Chi member, was described by state prosecutors as the head of a large-scale trafficking operation involving two fraternities.

What The Affidavit Says

According to an affidavit of probable cause filed Thursday and reported by PennLive, two waterways conservation officers stopped the pontoon at Foster Joseph Sayers Dam after they saw it make contact with another boat. Fourteen passengers were aboard.

After the impact, the officers wrote, multiple people helped the operator — who was wearing a blue New York Giants "DeVito" jersey — away from the helm and into a seat.

Officers said the man in the Giants jersey, identified as Abbatiello, "couldn't follow directions" and told them he had two or three drinks earlier in the day. He was handcuffed and arrested for boating under the influence after performing poorly on standardized field sobriety tests, police said.

Emptying his pockets, officers said they opened his wallet looking for a driver's license and found an unknown substance in a plastic bag, along with a rolled-up one-dollar bill. Asked what was in the bag, Abbatiello answered "cocaine," according to the affidavit. It tested positive and weighed two grams.

He faces misdemeanor counts of operating a watercraft under the influence of alcohol, unlawful possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia, plus nine summary boating violations and a count of underage drinking.

The Long Island address on his complaint is the same one listed for his brother, PennLive reported.

A Second Family In The Case

The Abbatiellos are not the only relatives caught up in the Penn State bust. The New York Post reported that Thomas Robinson, 23, was among the dozen Delta Upsilon students charged this week, and that his father, Paul Robinson, 59, a Pittsburgh attorney, was charged in connection with the scheme.

The Post reported both had prior run-ins with the law: the elder Robinson was charged with DUI in 2024 after a May traffic stop at which police recorded a blood-alcohol level more than twice the legal limit, a case he waived a preliminary hearing on and which was later closed. His son pleaded guilty to vandalism after defacing university property in the fall of 2024 and paid a $480 fine, and faced drug-dealing allegations in December 2024.

Paul Robinson is now charged with felony tampering, hindering apprehension, concealing evidence and obstructing the investigation.