The younger brother of the alleged leader of a cocaine trafficking ring linked to two Penn State fraternities was arrested after authorities said they caught him on a boat with a cocaine “baggy.”
Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission officers apprehended Sebastiano M. Abbatiello, of New York, on July 10 when he was driving a pontoon boat on a reservoir in Centre County, according to a probable cause affidavit filed Thursday, August 20, and viewed by the Centre Daily Times.
Sebastiano, 20, who had 14 passengers with him, was accused of driving the boat under the influence after officers said they witnessed the vessel collide into a different boat, according to the affidavit obtained by the newspaper. He was taken into custody following field sobriety tests.
As officers searched for Sebastiano’s wallet for his identification, they discovered what they described as an “unknown substance in a plastic baggy,” the Centre Daily Times reported. After Sebastiano told officers it was “cocaine,” subsequent testing confirmed this to be true, per the affidavit.
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Sebastiano, who’s facing three misdemeanor charges related to the incident, is the brother of alleged drug ring leader Agostino Abbatiello, according to The Daily Collegian. Sebastino is a Penn State student, a university spokesperson confirmed to the student newspaper.
His brother, Agostino, 24, surrendered to authorities Tuesday, August 18, in connection with alleged cocaine trafficking activities stemming from 2023 and 2024, when he had been a student at Penn State, according to a news release from the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office.
On August 17, the attorney general’s office announced that Agostino and 13 other people had been charged in relation to “a cocaine-trafficking operation involving primarily college students and two fraternities.”
In addition to Agostino, 12 other defendants attended Penn State at the time of the alleged scheme, according to authorities
Agostino is accused of leading the operation with one of the other former Penn State students, according to the attorney general’s office, which described both men as the main suppliers who frequently traveled to Philadelphia and New York for “large qualities of cocaine.”
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An investigation revealed the cocaine had been packaged at two Penn State fraternity homes, Delta Upsilon and Sigma Chi, and then dealt primarily to students, according to the attorney general’s office.
“This was a coordinated and highly-profitable drug-trafficking crew revolving around two senior members of the fraternities, other fraternity brothers and pledges,” Attorney General Dave Sunday said in a statement.
Agostino was arraigned on several felony charges, including multiple counts of possession with intent to deliver cocaine, the attorney general’s office said. He was denied bail.
An attorney representing Agostino, who was a member of Sigma Chi at Penn State, told the Centre Daily Times that he plans to challenge bail denial during an upcoming preliminary hearing.
His legal counsel, Philip Masorti, told the newspaper, “My client, and every citizen, enjoys the presumption of innocence.”
A preliminary hearing related to his younger brother Sebastiano’s alleged cocaine possession is set for October 14, according to the Centre Daily Times.
Information regarding Sebastiano’s legal counsel or whether he entered a plea wasn’t immediately available.
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