5 Columbia students charged in drug bust

Five Columbia University students, including a former student council member, were arrested early Tuesday on the Morningside Heights campus as part of a massive drug bust that police dubbed "Operation Ivy League."

The students were charged with selling cocaine, marijuana, ecstasy, Adderall and LSD from their dormitories and fraternity houses, sometimes hiding LSD in Altoids mints and SweeTarts candies, according to the special narcotics prosecutor's office. Undercover police bought nearly $11,000 in drugs from the students during the five-month sting, authorities said.

Police also arrested three alleged suppliers, one of whom faces charges of plotting to kidnap rival cocaine traffickers at gunpoint and torture them.

One of the five students, Chris Coles, 20, a Maryland resident, told arresting officers he was dealing drugs to pay tuition, police said.

"This is no way to work your way through college," Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said in a statement. "The fact that a supplier to the Columbia students was willing to kill his rivals should demolish any argument that drugs on campus is a victimless crime."

The other students arrested were Harrison David, of Laguna Beach, Calif., Adam Klein, of Charleston, S.C. and Jose Stephan Perez, of Atlanta, all 20; and Michael Wymbs, 22, a senior from Beach Haven, N.J., who formerly served on his engineering school's student council. Each of the five specialized in selling a specific drug, authorities said.

The five said nothing to reporters as they were led handcuffed from the 25th Precinct Tuesday. All pleaded not guilty last night.

"The alleged behavior of the students involved in this incident goes against not only state and federal law, but also university policy and the principles we have set - and strive together to maintain - for our community," Columbia University officials said in a statement. "Please rest assured we are taking this matter very seriously."

Police arrested alleged suppliers Roberto Lagares, 30, of Bedford-Stuyvesant, on Sunday; and Miron Sarzynski, 23, and Megan Asper, 22, both of the East Village, on Oct. 27. Sarzynski is charged with attempted kidnapping. All pleaded not guilty. Neither they nor their attorneys could be located immediately for comment.

Three of the Columbia students were members of Alpha Epsilon Pi, Pi Kappa Alpha and Psi Upsilon and used bedrooms in the residences to conduct transactions, authorities said.

Mark Williams, executive director of Psi Upsilon International, headquartered in Indianapolis, on Tuesday said he was dispatching a staff member to New York. With Tim Herrera