Stony Brook student charged after selling drugs he advertised through social media, police say

Suffolk County police found "an illicit pharmacy" of drugs in a Stony Brook University student's dorm room Thursday evening after authorities said he was advertising drugs on social media.

Domingo Zaba, 41, who lived on campus at the Lauterbur Hall dorm rooms, faces more than a dozen felony charges after he was arrested Thursday in a joint investigation between Suffolk police and the Stony Brook University Police Department.

A Stony Brook student notified campus police that Zaba, originally from Mastic, had been advertising drugs through social media, said Acting Suffolk County Police Commissioner Stuart Cameron.

Undercover Suffolk narcotics officers arranged to buy cocaine from Zaba on campus about 4 p.m. Thursday, leading to his arrest, Cameron said.

A search warrant of his dorm room turned up drugs including fentanyl, cocaine, mushrooms, Xanax, ketamine, amphetamines, THC edibles and marijuana, Cameron said.

"I truly believe the campus is a very safe place, but if Mr. Zaba had been allowed to operate selling drugs to students it would have resulted in someone being harmed or killed," Cameron said.

Zaba was charged with three counts each of second-degree and third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance, and three counts each of third-degree and fifth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance. He also was charged with one count each of second-degree and fourth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, as well as a count of fifth-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance.

Police said Zaba was a transfer student, attending his first semester at Stony Brook. He had a roommate who shared the dorm, who police said was not involved.

Zaba told police the narcotics in his dorm room were his, not his roommate's, according to court records. Police said he had a criminal history of low-level drug offenses.

"This is not something that will be tolerated in a college environment. Overdoses are almost completely nonexistent on the university campus and that's the way we want to keep it," Cameron said. "He was somewhat overt in his drug sales. He may have felt comfortable, but he should not have … because we're going to take prompt action to take these drug dealers down."

Zaba appeared Friday at First District Court in Central Islip. He was placed on supervised release with GPS monitoring and ordered to return to court Wednesday. His attorney could not be reached for comment.

Stony Brook University police generally rely on Suffolk County police for specialized investigations, such as drugs or violent crime scenes.

"We are an extremely safe campus. We consider this certainly a one-off and an anomaly," said Chief Security Officer Lawrence Zacarese. "Our students know they want to be in a safe environment and we have a zero tolerance for incidents like this. … We haven't seen overdoses or possession of those [narcotics]."

By John Asbury

john.asbury@newsday.comJohnAsbury

John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.