The state Attorney General's Office is investigating a Penn State student on reports that he was helping to finance his college education by selling large amounts of marijuana and making $30,000 to $45,000 per deal.
The office obtained a search warrant in early December ordering the student, whose name The Daily Collegian is withholding pending charges, to turn over bank records and other financial statements in his PNC Bank account. Police said they think the student was buying up to 70 pounds of marijuana at a time for resale in the region.
The attorney general's office does not comment on ongoing investigations.
The investigation was initiated when law enforcement in Centre County became aware of a "large-scale" marijuana distribution organization operating in the State College area. A confidential informant identified the student, a supply-chain management major, as a distributor.
Members of the Centre County Drug Task Force had the student's residence under surveillance on Dec. 7, 2007, when a Toyota Rav-4 arrived at the student's residence. Officers followed the car and pulled over the driver, Jason J. Remington, for a traffic stop. Police found $30,000 in cash that Remington said was given to him by the student for delivering 27 pounds of marijuana.
Remington said he met the student under investigation in February 2007 and would deliver marijuana to the student on a biweekly basis, according to court documents. On two occasions, the student gave Remington more than $100,000 in cash for marijuana, according to documents.
The confidential informant met the student last summer and also began dealing, obtaining between 12 and 15 pounds of marijuana from the student over five transactions from mid-July to October, according to court documents. In his last transaction, the informant received five pounds of marijuana for $15,000, according to court documents.
The informant said he was told by another person, whom he knew only as "B," that the student under investigation was receiving his marijuana from a person in New York. The student also told the informant that he was using the proceeds of the marijuana trafficking to fund his education and to purchase electronics.
Police said the suspect told the informant he was done selling in October 2007, and that the last shipment he had received was 70 pounds and he sold 50 pounds of it to one person, according to court documents.
