It might sound pretty surprising at first, but over the years, there have actually been a number of drug rings among Greek life students at major universities. Granted, while the appearance of illegal drugs might not be completely out of the ordinary in Greek life, that frats have actually been drug conduits for students takes this to another level.
One of the earlier cases was back in 1988, at the Beta Kappa Phi fraternity at the University of Massachusetts (via United Press International). Not only were several frat students distributing illegal drugs like cocaine, but they were also selling alcohol to underage students and operating an illegal bar, too. In 1991, at the University of Virginia, three frats — Delta Upsilon, Tau Kappa Epsilon, and Phi Epsilon Pi — were all raided by officers who found everything from marijuana to LSD and made several arrests.
Far from being a problem of the past, fraternities are still finding themselves involved with drug dealing in more recent years, too. In 2020, the Phi Gamma Delta, Kappa Sigma, and Beta Theta Pi frats at UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke University, and Appalachian State University, all had an intertwined drug ring that sold more than $1.5 million in drugs from 2017–2020, and led to their suspensions.
