All language subtitles for Houses.of.Horror.Secrets.of.College.Greek.Life.S01E04.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH

REPORTER: A lifeless body
of the sorority girl,

better known as Jenny,
was discovered in her apartment

on the San Diego
State University campus.

[music]

ALAN POLESZAK:
When you hear a young kid

about the age of your own

dead in a dorm room
from an overdose?

Yeah, it hits home.

- PRODUCER: One, take one.
- Okay.

PRODUCER: Um...

I suggested that we do

a long-term narcotics operation.

I was very quickly told, no.

You don't ask permission
to go after crooks.

Before anybody else dies,

we're gonna do this thing.

REPORTER: For months,
investigators infiltrated

broad narcotics networks,

many of them operating
out of fraternity houses.

There was a coke dealer
in all the top houses.

REPORTER: Nineteen-year-old
Kenneth Ciaccio

allegedly organized
the drug ring.

I mentioned,
you know, I do have a connection

if we wanna sell some cocaine.

His eyes light up.

REPORTER: Police say
Ciaccio advertised cocaine sales

using cell phone text messages.

From now
until midnight Thursday,

grams are 35, eights are 110,

quads are 210, so stock up.

[chuckles]

Unbelievable.

These individuals
have preyed on students--

What were you thinking?

--and have ruined
hundreds of lives.

[music]

There is no place in the world

that is more exciting
or thrilling

than sororities
and fraternities.

But you don't know what actually
goes on behind closed doors.

All of Greek life

has some sort
of a tradition of secrecy.

MAN: This was a powerful
organization.

I mean,
it was a serious cover-up.

The amount of power
that the fraternities have,

it's so thoroughly woven into
the nature of the universities.

ALAN: There is always
the same playbook.

DISPATCHER: 911. What's the
address of your emergency?

They start the cover up.
Nobody talks.

Hazing is a huge problem

and it's resulted in tragedy.

Someone was burning
a cross on the lawn.

They would grab their members,

force their face down

and make them do
a line of cocaine.

It felt very sadistic.

He wanted me to be hurting.

WOMAN: You sent your kid off
to college, and this happens?

[music]

I was a patrol sergeant

on duty that morning

with the San Diego
State Police Department.

The day before
was Cinco de Mayo.

There were several parties
in the area that day

and throughout the evening.

FORMER SERGEANT:
The call came out that,

uh, there was a female down

unresponsive and not breathing.

[sirens wailing]

When we arrived on scene,
it was obvious

that she had been dead
for several hours.

Um, rigor mortis
and lividity had set in.

Her name was Jenny Poliakoff.

She was a member of Alpha Phi.

And Jenny was on the floor.

We were told
that it was an overdose.

I'd been to a lot
of death calls,

but for some reason
this just felt very different.

I had a niece that was
about the same age at that time.

She may have even had, you know,
some resemblance to my niece.

For some reason,
it just, you know,

was a little more, um, real.

The day that I found out

was probably within an hour
or two hours

of her passing.

Jenny was a freshman.

She was pre-med and she wanted
to be a child psychologist.

She was just such
a compassionate, kind person.

She just wanted
to make people smile.

She was one year older than me.

Jenny was our ticket
to college parties at that time.

You just go into these houses

and they're packed
full of people,

and it was very known
that there were drugs.

It wasn't like a big deal.

But Jenny is not the person
that you expect

to die from this type of death.

I've had some contacts
at Alpha Phi

and as far as I could,
you know, piece it together,

a member of Alpha Phi

was supplying their sorority
sisters with cocaine.

There was a pool party.

They'd been using cocaine
throughout the day.

And then they had
a formal that evening

where the drinking
and drugs continued.

She had some of the neighborhood
of 18 to 22 bumps of cocaine.

Just like with any drug,
you don't know

how much is too much,
how pure it is.

Jenny's case was too much,

so things were spiraling
out of hand with the drugs.

Every year we would make
a lot of arrests for possession,

and a large number of my arrests

came from people that were
involved in the Greek system.

I remember hearing from one
of Jenny's sorority sisters

that during her induction
into the sorority,

there was a line of cocaine
put on the toilet seat

and they would grab
their members by the hair,

force their face down into it,
make 'em do a line of cocaine.

The track that they were on

and that university was on
at that time

had some type
of terminal velocity.

I mean, it just--
it just kept accelerating

and it was getting worse.

So I decided
to uproot the people

that were preying
upon these kids.

My name is Kenny Ciaccio.

And in the fall of 2006,
I went to San Diego State.

[music]

KENNY CIACCIO: I lived in
Tijuana till sixth grade

when my mom met my stepdad.

And we followed him,
uh, to Chula Vista,

which is south
of, uh, San Diego.

I don't think anyone
in my family

had gone to college till then,

so I always felt
like, um, an outsider.

I remember moving into the dorms

with hundreds
of other wide-eyed kids.

I was excited.

San Diego State
was lovingly referred to

as S-T-D-S-U.

As you can imagine
from the name,

everyone, uh, partied
and things got a little crazy.

In 2006, I believe
we were ranked number five

in terms of all the party
schools by Playboy.

I mean, everyone knew
about it on campus.

It was kind of a source
of pride in a weird way.

The Greek system had a lot
to do with that reputation.

San Diego State certainly

from an outsider's perspective
weren't doing much

to try and fight their
stereotype as a party school.

And frankly...

they wouldn't be the only
campus to do that, right?

I mean, uh, campuses
in need a niche

and being known
as a party school's

not necessarily a bad thing

if you're--if you're trying
to get foots in the door.

KENNY: Freshman year
during recruitment week,

each fraternity has their
personally designed pop-up tent

with their colors
and their letters on the top.

When you're walking by, girls
stop by and say hi to them.

And you just see
the social aspect of them.

I specifically remember

that's where I met the guys
from Theta Chi.

Theta Chi had the two actual
one story houses

where they connected
in the back.

ANDREW: These houses
look like [bleep].

They were painted
this ugly gray.

We had dirt in our backyard
for, uh, for a backyard.

Theta Chi literally was known
as a dying house

because, uh, nationally
we're actually a tri fraternity.

I decided to try
to make it better

and become an officer
and more involved.

What we started doing
to kind of reel people in

was really
just partying with 'em,

um, because that's what people
want at the end of the day,

and that's what they expect
from fraternities.

KENNY: They mentioned,
we have our real parties

at this brother's house
down the street,

and that was our--my first
introduction of Thunderdome.

ANDREW: The satellite house

was, uh, affectionately
called Thunderdome,

which comes
from the movie Mad Max.

We could drink,
we could have fun,

and we wouldn't have
to be afraid of, you know,

particular officers,
uh, within the fraternity

who, you know, wanted to keep
that, that tri house mentality,

um, you know, we could
kind of do our own thing.

KENNY: I went to a couple
rush events,

but once I got
into the Theta Chi party,

I just never really wanted
to look anywhere else.

And closing out the semester,

I became an official member
of Theta Chi.

That first semester
after you're in,

it seemed like, um, you know,
it's a party every weekend.

I would go with my other buddies
to their fraternity parties,

and you would see
people doing cocaine.

ANDREW: At the time,
there was a coke dealer

in all the top houses.

I mean, I knew
the one in Sigma Phi.

There were ones
all over the place.

But being involved
in the parties at Theta Chi,

you never really saw drugs.

Theta Chi did not have
the best reputation.

Our parties were not,
uh, up to par

with the rest
of the fraternity row.

We weren't pulling
the hottest chicks.

Going to other
fraternity parties,

you could see what drives
the social atmosphere.

You see that the girls
going some lines of coke

and whoever supplied that

is usually the life of the party

or at least the center
of attention.

As a freshman, seeing this,
it was exciting.

I wanted to put myself
in those shoes.

ANDREW: Think about it.
You--you're a guy.

You've got, uh, a baggie

and then girls
just magically follow you.

You know, yeah, you know,
you have to give

something up for that.

But hey, in their minds,
you know,

you can at least talk
to these girls

and, you know, get to know them.

What's the icebreaker? Cocaine.

KENNY: At the end of the day,
there's a competition

of who can get the best girls
at their parties

and who can have the best image

to the new classmen
coming in, you know.

And being a 19-year-old
wanting to be the popular kid,

I wanted to be the one
with the drugs,

with the money,
with whatever you needed

to have to be popular,

that's where I wanted to get to.

And if it was money or drugs,

you know,
I was gonna chase both.

I just had to figure out
how I was gonna do it.

Growing up in Mexico,

cocaine is on the news
every night.

REPORTER: Tijuana has become
a focal point

of increasing violence.

It's a drug trafficking
powerhouse

across the US border
from San Diego.

There's either someone
who got caught with it,

someone got killed over it.

Once we got to the US,

my hometown
actually Chula Vista,

one out of ten, it was like,

you know, well, they're making
their money from trafficking.

DAMON MOSLER: Chula Vista,

which is one
of our southern communities

adjacent to the border,
was growing tremendously.

And some of the money
that was coming in

from Mexican cartels
was being used to buy houses

for temporary storage
locations for the drugs

once they had made it
across the border.

Living in South
San Diego, Chula Vista,

I had the connection already
to where the drugs came from.

After going through frat row

and seeing the drugs
so prevalent

and knowing people
from back home

that would be able to supply it,

it was really just nailing
down the details.

I just didn't have
the startup cost

of selling cocaine
it was gonna take.

[music]

KENNY: I remember
having a conversation

before one of our parties
with my friend.

He had just gotten a, uh, large
settlement for a car accident.

That's when I mentioned,
you know, I do have a connection

if we wanna,
um, sell some cocaine.

That's what all
the other fraternities use

to get their name out,
so why not us?

We talked about how, uh,
this will be a perfect way

to try to get some, uh, return
on that settlement check,

and his eyes light up.

I called my buddy
from high school

and we got a half pound,

which is about 225 grams.

We gave him around $6,000
at the time.

We just put it aside
and drove back all the way

to, um, Thunderdome.

I remember my heart beating
off the top of my chest

the whole drive back
to San Diego State.

I was excited to see
what this held.

I definitely wasn't thinking
about the consequences.

I remember walking into
the house where everyone was,

and I remember
just seeing a big brick.

At that time, I knew
at least one coke dealer

in most of the fraternities,
so I was like,

"Oh, well,
I guess we get our own."

So it began.

At the beginning, you know,
it was all just close friends.

We all--we all had the two
or three buddies that did coke.

And once you let
your two or three buddies

that did coke know
that you're selling,

they're gonna tell
their three buddies each.

And by, you know,
the first two, three weeks,

we probably had thirty,
forty customers.

It was all text message-based.

I lived in the fraternity house,

so if I knew the person
coming in the house in the room.

If it's a new person,
you kind of wanna meet 'em

outside the house.

And our house got an alley
in the back

where, you know,
we met most people.

We started with those
225 grams, $6,000 worth

turned into almost like $15,000.

Not like we asked permission

from the house or anything,

but we also didn't hide it.

From the beginning, there was
always the disapproving eyes,

you know, from our president
or for the older classmen

that really didn't wanna see
much things change.

ANDREW: Would we really call
the police on our own brothers?

I don't think so.
That's kind of a betrayal.

But changing of the guards
is what really happened.

Um, all of our old officers
were voted out

and we had new ones voted in.

From there,
Kenny was sergeant-at-arms,

I was vice president.

So our parties
were getting better

simply in the fact
that we were having them.

And Kenny did have
a big reputation on campus,

so there was definitely a buzz

about, you know,
his product, I would say.

It was also a, I think a great
way to pull the house together

because deep down inside,
all of us really wanted this.

We could wear letters
around campus

and actually feel
like people recognized,

you know, who we are.

So with a bigger party
comes better atmosphere,

comes the better girls.

With drugs comes the sex,

and with sex comes drugs.

ANDREW: I never ever thought

that Alpha Phis
would come over to Theta Chi.

And when I saw them starting
to come over with Kenny

is really when I started
to realize

that the house was moving
in the direction

that we kind of wanted.

KENNY: Now it's towards
the end of my freshman year

and we're probably selling
a quarter pound a week,

which means $3,000 profit.

I guess during the time
you almost feel

a little, you know, untouchable.

The campus has its own,
like, police department

that you never really thought

were, you know, real cops
like the outside

and it seemed like you couldn't
get away with a lot more things.

I'm sure
the universities benefit

from being known
as a party school.

And, um, at the end of the day,
we supplied the parties

that become national news

and that get 'em the attention
that the new freshmen

or, like, the recruits
are looking for.

The fact that a school has been
identified as a party school

is almost a wink
and a nod to the Greeks

that enforcement
of student code of conduct

has been passed on
by the university,

that they can engage
in a variety of activities

that are never
gonna truly be investigated,

never truly
going to be disciplined.

You know, unless your product is
really killing someone,

people don't care.

[music]

REPORTER: A lifeless body
of the sorority girl,

better known as Jenny,
was discovered in her apartment

on the San Diego
State University campus.

JENNA PUGH: Jenny's funeral

was at the synagogue in Poway.

Just the amount of people
that show up

and the amount of people
that are crying

and there to bury Jenny

just speaks volumes to the type
of person that she was.

And I'll never forget that day.

To have to actually
physically bury your friend,

somebody who you've spent
weekends with,

somebody you've seen laugh,

to know that their life
just stopped,

I was angry.

Where did these drugs come from?

Who's responsible
for Jenny's death?

I remember seeing her picture
and recognizing her.

I definitely knew people
that knew her were shocked

because we all thought,

"What happened to Jenny
was really tragic."

FORMER SERGEANT:
After Jenny's death,

I remember--I reached out
to the lieutenant

and I asked him, "What steps
do we take from here?"

And he said, you know,
"We're just gonna call

"the medical examiner,
we'll write an incident report."

And that was the end of it.

It just felt funny, you know,
an incident report?

Like, that can't be
the end of it.

I didn't think her story should
end with an incident report.

She was somebody's child.

She was somebody's sister.

As a police officer,
it's part of who you are

to try to prevent it
from occurring again.

We did a good job
at making arrests

for possession,

but it was hard work

trying to pinpoint
where the drugs are coming from.

I approached several supervisors

and suggested that we do
a long term narcotics operation.

I was very quickly told,
"No, that's never gonna happen.

"That's too political."

When kids go to college,
there's gonna be some drinking,

there's gonna be some partying.

But I think if you unveil
a larger issue

like cocaine and overdoses
and things like that,

that can impact
an institution financially.

Universities see themselves
as being partners

with the sororities
and fraternities.

And they make a lot
of money for them.

They don't want bad press.

They often defend themselves
as separate organizations,

but there is a fairly
significant payroll

at the university
that is there essentially

to promote those organizations.

FORMER SERGEANT:
The administration

would have to admit
that there's a problem.

Nobody wants to send
their kid somewhere

where they have a drug problem.

When you have a department

that's connected
to a larger institution

like San Diego State,

you're only gonna go
as far as they'll let you go.

You're not gonna do anything

that's going to embarrass them
politically

but I continued to push.

I wasn't gonna give up.

I wanted to make sure that
we saw this through to the end.

In September of 2007,

I had become the sergeant

in charge of the special
operations unit there

with our department.

And I wanted to do something

about the drug problem
on campus.

I did bring it
to my chief's attention.

He very simply said,

"You know,
there's a problem here.

"Address it.

"But you see these
students every day.

"It would be impossible for us

"to work in an undercover
capacity

"because they would
recognize you."

So I reached out to the DEA.

The San Diego State
Police Sergeant called me

and asked if we could help him.

He told me what his problem was.

What killed Jenny Poliakoff
was cocaine and alcohol.

Well, I can't do much
about the alcohol.

But we can go hunt the guys
that are slinging the cocaine.

We got to see
the numbers,

the number of cases
that they had coming in,

the number of calls
related to overdoses on campus,

not fatal ones.

And the number of contacts

the San Diego State
Police Department

had the students
who relayed the drugs.

And that gave me a picture
that it wasn't strictly

an isolated incident.

Cocaine was prevalent,
so was Ecstasy,

so was methamphetamine,

which surprised me
on the university campus.

For me, having young people
die needlessly

is not acceptable and we can
do something to change that.

And we need to.

We needed
to try to figure out,

was this an isolated
couple of guys doing it?

Was it a big organization?

We didn't know.

And I thought,
I think I have just the group

to go on down there
and clean that up.

DAMON: I had a feeling that
the university administration

would view this as a negative
to the university.

They would give
the university a black eye

and they would mar
the reputation.

That struck me.

Young kids shouldn't be
going to college and dying.

We just came back
from summer break

and we've had a whole
semester of dealing.

There's more buzz
around the house.

And you could see the benefit
from the buzz around.

Our very first rush week,
our pledge class

went from like 14, 15
in my class

to, like, the high 30s
in our very next class.

To think, you know,
in a weird way, morale went up.

KENNY: Once we were in,
we--they weren't shy

about showing
the profits from it.

You go to Pacific beach

and you have three
or four girls with you

and your two buddies.

And by the end of the night,

you know, I would have
a couple thousand-dollar tab.

You're floating a little bit
higher than everybody else.

You have a secret that
you're hiding from everyone.

You haven't been put in jail
or gotten in trouble over it.

Nothing was gonna stop us.

[music]

The way the investigation
started was exploratory.

To take down an organization,

you start by identifying it

and you use informants

or undercover buys to identify
who it is you're dealing with

and what it is they're doing.

We inserted an undercover
on campus to buy drugs

at a very low level,
here, there, or anywhere.

Her story was that she was
a community college student

who was planning on transferring
to San Diego State soon.

To get in initially,

she made a phone call

to a number we had identified

from a source
and asked to buy drugs.

And they said okay.

And then, she went down
and bought drugs.

Then she did it again.

And one thing led to the other.

We talked to informants,

talked to people
who knew things.

We identified what the sources
of the cocaine were.

And that ended up
being the fraternities.

There's probably a lot
of circumstances

where you can find a favorable
situation to sell dope,

but this was a really good one.

All the elements were there
to make a lot of money

easily and relatively safely.

The environment
was secure and refined.

The customer base was there
and had plenty of money.

They were selling to people that
they "knew" or felt they knew.

DAMON: Fraternities
are a brotherhood.

You take an oath
and there's an allegiance

that's ascribed to the inner
fraternity to your brothers.

And that's helpful if you're
conducting criminal activity.

It is the perfect storm
for something awful to happen.

[siren wailing]

On February 24th, 2008,

we responded
to another student, a male,

Kurt Baker
who was found deceased

at one of the fraternity
houses there.

REPORTER: Tragically,
a second college student

died of a cocaine overdose
in a fraternity house this year.

Kurt was a guy
who was in Sigma Pi,

and there was a lot
of drug use in that house.

I know one guy in the house
who used to sell cocaine.

ALAN: I thought
this is a problem.

We've identified it.

It's developing into
a significant trafficking group

that's having an impact on these
kids and it's dangerous.

It made us think that
we were in the right place

at the right time
doing the right thing

but we were
just running out of time.

I had informed my chief.

I said, "Hey, I need
to tell you about an operation

"that we're doing with DEA."

And he told me
he didn't wanna know.

And that was his response
on a couple occasions.

DAMON: He was a concern
that people who were not

immediately part of the
operation will tell people.

So as we develop
any operational plans,

we wanna keep the circle of
people who know things limited.

The less people that know,
the better.

The last thing I wanted
to happen was some administrator

at San Diego State
to get--got wind of what

we were doing and burn
the whole thing down.

[music]

You would always have
the stranger approach you

at the random fraternity party,

coming up to me,
looking for cocaine.

I would say, you know,
"Get the [bleep] out of here.

"I don't know what
you're talking about."

But if they come
with their friend,

that's a different story.

[music]

Beginning of April,
our undercover

was introduced to Ken.

This girl
called me up and said,

"My friend from Mesa College
would like your number and,

"you know, they're looking
to pick up some cocaine."

And I said, you know,
"If you can vouch for her,

"then yeah, feel free."

DAMON: She bought a couple
grams of cocaine from him,

gave him cash.

All of that was recorded.

As the case progressed,
a second purchase

was made from Ciaccio,
and that was a larger purchase.

Our undercover officer had
bought an eighth of an ounce.

At that point, she asked Kenny
to get large quantities.

You wanna get
an idea of how strong

this guy's connections are

and where can
we go higher than him.

KENNY: She asked me if,
you know,

if I could get a bigger amount.

And I said, "Sure,
no problem, I could even get

"a quarter pound if you want."

If this guy
could do that much weight

to the kids on that campus,
he's a significant player.

[music]

By that time,
I'm looking forward

to our formal dance
that's gonna be at the Tropicana

in Las Vegas and I'm looking
to get rid of everything

that I had
in my possession and turn it

into actual dollar bills
before we headed out of town.

Towards the end of April,
it turns out that

the undercover agent
had received a text message.

The group supervisor came
skipping up to my office

and said, "Get a load of this."

DAMON: I'll read it to you.

"Attention faithful customers.

"Both myself
and my associates will be

"in Vegas this coming weekend.

"Bad news is we will not be
here to complete sales.

"Good news..."

"Is from now
until midnight Thursday,

"grams are 35, eights are 110,
quads are 210, so stock up.

"We'll be back Sunday night."

[laughs]

Unbelievable.

I can't believe I actually
even wrote the prices.

I think Ciaccio
and the others felt exactly

like they were untouchable.

They took advantage
of the fraternity

environment to very good effect.

They're not worried.

They're talking
to their customer base.

They're fine with them.

And they were really I think

arrogantly complacent.

With the focus increasingly
on Theta Chi,

if Ken was unavailable,
our undercover was able to buy

from other people.

Kenny had a group
working for him

and he was the ring leader.

As April concluded,
we were able to determine

that the transactions
that occurred involving nine

different fraternities
and our undercover dealer,

over a hundred thirty drug
transactions buying from people.

That's a lot of drug
transactions during basically

a four-month period.

We knew that at some
point, we were gonna have

to take action because
the end of the year would come,

the students will scatter.

By May 2008,
we were planning to take down

the case and we knew
it was gonna be a big one.

So we picked a date
and it turned out intentionally

to be the anniversary
date of Jenny's death.

We picked May 6th.

We wanted it to have
some meaning to it.

And then it was decided
that we would have a meeting

with this--the administrative
staff of the university

and tell them that

this was going to happen.

I can understand why some
of the university administration

wasn't thrilled
with what occurred,

thought the negative
publicity would be bad

for the university or felt
that they could handle things

internally but the fact is,
that really didn't happen.

That hurts recruitment efforts.

That hurts safety statistics.

That hurts people looking
at their school as donors.

The hope is that they
would be actively trying

to prevent it or correct it.

They knew they had
some ODs on campus.

They knew there was--
there were drugs on the campus

and I think there's
a certain level of, "Oh, crap."

But, did we need permission

from the San Diego State
hierarchy?

No.

We're not asking
anybody for permission.

You don't ask permission
to go after crooks

before anybody else
gets in trouble and dies.

We're gonna do this thing.

Cinco de Mayo usually
always comes around the week

of finals, you know, a US-made
holiday for US drinking.

[music]

KENNY: All the brothers were
throwing a party at Thunderdome.

Everyone was pretty
trashed and sloshed.

I think we all probably
ended up going to bed

maybe around, I don't know,
4 o'clock in the morning.

[crickets chirping]

[music]

Whenever you have
a large scale arrest

and takedown,
you have to have a place

to process people
before you take them to jail.

And so what was used was
underneath the basketball arena.

The entire area was set aside.

ALAN: Cars are rolling in
and people are lining up

and everything's being set up.

Here we go.

FORMER SERGEANT:
And just the sheer number

of officers and resources
that were available

and present that morning
was actually overwhelming.

And then they rolled out.

All the cars rolled out one time
and went to various locations.

ALAN: I went to Theta Chi
because it was the biggest one.

That house had a very
expert group of agents

going in that were
handpicked for that task.

And if something spot out,
I knew they could handle it.

They rolled up an individual,
cars parked, everybody gets out,

lines up,
knock notice on the door,

which is,
"Police search warrant.

"Open the door."

[bird chirping]

KENNY: About 5:15
in the morning,

my phone's vibrating.

I just remember looking
over to it and it said,

"Cops raided frat row."

And I don't think
I had finished reading

the message where I heard
the front doors just boom.

I remember waking up,
being half awake,

hearing metal against metal
as they bashed the gate in.

About 10 seconds later,
there were just flashlights

all up in my room.

ANDREW: They were screaming,
like, "Get the [bleep] - now!

"Get your ass out!
Get your ass up!"

They grabbed
me and my girlfriend.

They threw us on the floor,
handcuffed.

They're like,
"What's your name?"

"Uh, Kenny Ciaccio."

"Oh, oh. [makes noise]
We got 'em."

They all were very,
very shocked.

Their rarefied little
world was pierced suddenly.

They zip-tied everyone,
you know,

regardless of who you were.

They lined us all up on a wall.

It was crazy.

ALAN: Everybody gets secured.

They're all
seated down somewhere,

and then the search begins.

KENNY: Your flight-or-fight risk
kicks in and the first thing

you're doing is deny,
deny, deny,

"Well, I don't know
what you're talking about."

And then, you know,

I look up and the next person
that's gonna ask

the following questions
is the actual undercover

that I sold drugs to.

I was just, "Oh [bleep]."

They did know about Thunderdome.

They left and went to go
check out that other house.

At Thunderdome,
the search yielded cocaine,

a handgun, and cash.

And there was
a process lab there too,

where they, you know, cut it.

Later on, inside the Theta Chi
house, they found a shotgun.

It was stacked up against
the wall somewhere.

It indicated to me that
they were prepared to use them

if they had to, to protect their
dope, protect their operation.

The fact that we found
firearms shows us the danger

that's associated with dealing
drugs, and for it to be on

the university campus was
even more alarming to us.

KENNY: They just
moved me from my room.

I'm handcuffed behind
my head and I just recall

asking the cops,
you know, "Do you think

"we're gonna get out by,
you know, 3:15

"when my final starts?"

And they would just laugh.

REPORTER: A major drug
bust today at a big

West Coast school,
close to 100 arrests there.

ANDREW: They took us
to Viejas Arena

and that's when, you know,

and that's when, you know,

I started seeing everyone else

who was, you know, kind
of swept up in the drag net.

I had already heard that
they had raided fraternity row,

but pulling into Viejas Arena
and seeing 60 people

that you could tell had either
been crying or pepper-sprayed,

all in handcuffs
waiting to be processed.

This operation set on fall
resulted in the arrest

of a hundred individuals
involving distribution

of cocaine, marijuana, ecstasy,
and methamphetamine.

And seizures so far to date

are over 350 ecstasy pills,

over two kilograms of cocaine,

50 pounds of marijuana,

30 vials of hash oil,

four handguns, shotgun,
and over 60,000 in US currency.

MAN: We do have several
different groups at play.

Ciaccio was one
of the Theta Chi.

He was one of the senior
people involved in Theta Chi

in terms of the drug dealing.

He was at the top
of the hierarchy there.

Other ones weren't
necessarily as sophisticated.

FORMER SERGEANT: And the feeling
was overwhelming.

It was very satisfying to see
that something that we had put

so much work into was finally
going to have a conclusion.

It felt like I had
definitely done something

for Jenny, for her name.

REPORTER: This may be the face
that launched one of the biggest

drug trafficking investigations
on an American college campus.

When the news came
out all over the TV,

all over the internet,
it was shocking to me

because it just kind
of makes you realize

how bad the situation is.

I think people casually
using drugs,

you kind of think that this is
just what college life is.

But the amount
of drugs and the amount

of people that were being
affected by this operation,

you realize this is not normal.

This is--this is out of control.

My reputation
is kind of going down

and it's kind of a sad day
for the school.

The atmosphere on campus

afterwards was one of shock,
disbelief.

I was shocked
when I heard about it,

especially the fraternities
that they were focusing on.

I think that's
something that needed to be done

when you have two students
die from drug overdose.

That's obviously a problem.

Kenny Ciaccio was charged
with both transactions

of selling
to the undercover officer

and possessing that same
drug for purposes of selling it.

REPORTER: Also a member
of Theta Chi, Kenneth Ciaccio

is accused of being
the ringleader of cocaine sales.

The county jail,
the first news report

that I saw by myself,
they were saying that

I was looking at like
19 years in jail.

It's when it--when it
really clicked that I was

not going anywhere for a while.

We are determined to remove
people from our community

who place our students at risk,

and to see
that they are turned over

to the criminal justice system.

The health and safety
of our students

at San Diego State
is our highest priority.

None of the administrative
people at San Diego State

had anything to do
with the inception of this case.

They got involved
at the very end

and tried to spin it
to their advantage

because it was embarrassing

and they tried
to make the best of it

and turn it
into a positive thing.

[music]

I'm in handcuffs
and they had handed me

an envelope with my expulsion.

It said, "You've been expelled
from San Diego State,

"and you're actually barred
from any Cal State campus."

ANDREW: I was suspended
from San Diego State.

I wasn't expelled.

I believe they only expelled
people who were--who were having

dealing charges of which
I was just a possession charge.

There was probably six
to eight brothers from Theta Chi

that were arrested that day.

Everyone who got
arrested was kicked out

of the house
by the national chapter.

It was kind of a moot thing
because the national chapter

didn't pull our charter.

The university I believe did,

and they didn't allow us
to exist on the campus.

MAN: Next, number 12.

ALAN: I think it had
a--it hit a nerve

in a variety of different
ways in the community.

When people read
the newscast about Jenny, Kurt,

and what happened, I'd say we're
glad that somebody stepped up,

and you got to hand
it to the sergeant.

He stepped up.

I absolutely believe
more people could have died,

been injured,
had this operation not happened.

For a short amount of time,
this drug bust was impactful

and made it harder to get drugs
'cause it's hard to find

those things if you don't
have it at your fingertips.

So, yes,
if this would've happened

sooner, would Jenny
still be here?

Probably.

I truly believe that.

[music]

Most of these
people didn't have records

and if the transactions
weren't huge quantities,

they were not probably
likely to go to prison.

ANDREW: I ended up getting
back to the university.

I had a great lawyer.

The charges were
eventually dismissed.

I mean, my life wasn't ruined.

I don't know if other
peoples were, but, you know,

for the five years after that,
it was pretty rough.

[music]

KENNY: I get sent
to a county jail.

It was an eye-opening,
shocking experience.

You're in your cell 23 hours
a day and it was tough.

I called my dad,
but he really wanted nothing

to do with me while I was still,
you know, in there

and had just dragged the family
name through the dirt.

MAN: Mr. Ciaccio was identified
early on in this investigation

as being a major
source of supply on campus.

KENNY:
I plead to one felony count

of possession
with intent to distribute.

During the sentencings,
the judge opted

to just go with a hundred
and eighty days.

She says, "I'm gonna let you
do it at a halfway house."

So I was able to go out for
work and school, sign up for,

you know, a couple units
at the local community college.

We weren't trying to lock these
kids up forever for dealing.

We're trying to raise awareness,
get their attention,

but also to prevent other people
from using drugs on campus.

I think we slapped
a lot of people

who needed to get slapped.

It was important.

I think it sent a message
and I hope some kids took it

and bettered themselves for it.

It did hurt looking--knowing
that I was not gonna be

considered second
class moving forward.

It always lives in my mind what
my mom said when I got out and,

you know, it was,
"What were you thinking?

"What were you thinking?

"What were you thinking?"

And I've really never
had an answer, you know,

'cause what was I thinking?

We were just young and dumb.

[music]

REPORTER: According to the LAPD,

the bodies were pulled
from the surf around midnight.

WOMAN: The big sisters
did not tell the police

what actually was going on.

They were hazing them.

WOMAN: You endure the abuse,
being hit,

being punched, being paddled.

You will do anything to be
a part of this organization.

People are
getting hurt in D Nine groups,

but we are not gonna talk.

This cover up was so deep,

it was like running
into a brick wall.

WOMAN: They're lying,
they're hiding.

I wanna know the truth.

[waves crashing]