Columbia University Drug Bust: "Whole Thing Exaggerated," Says Suspect to Paper

NEW YORK (CBS/AP) A Columbia University student accused of being part of one of the largest drug takedowns on a New York City college campus says police are blowing the Ivy League bust out of proportion.

PICTURES: Columbia University Drug Bust

"This whole thing has been exaggerated. It's been blown up to the umpteenth," 20-year-old Christopher Coles told the New York Daily News at the Manhattan Detention Center on Wednesday.

The students were charged Tuesday with selling LSD-laced candy and other drugs at three fraternity houses and other residences on the Ivy League campus.

Tuition, fees, room and board at Columbia top $55,000 a year and during the semester-long undercover "Operation Ivy League" some of the defendants justified selling drugs as a way to afford college, officials said.

Coles and four other students, Harrison David, Adam Klein, Jose Stephen Perez and Michael Wymbs, were arrested at dawn on Tuesday at the prestigious school in upper Manhattan, in what authorities have called one of the largest drug takedowns on a New York City college campus in recent memory.

The operation was based on West 114th Street - Columbia's "fraternity row." Investigators said the defendants turned several frat houses into a virtual drug supermarket, reports CBS station WCBS.

Authorities said the investigation relied heavily on a youthful undercover officer who posed as a drug middleman for another college outside the city. Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget G. Brennan said the officer paid nearly $11,000 for 31 purchases of LSD, marijuana, cocaine, Ecstasy and prescription stimulants.

The students pleaded not guilty to multiple drug dealing charges alleging they were supplied by violent traffickers.