Students arrested, accused of selling cocaine ,marijuana

By Adrian Rodriguez

Two students were arrested last month under suspicion of selling cocaine and marijuana from their residence hall dorm rooms.

John Joseph Smith, 18, and Richard Alan Dixon Jr., 19, were taken into custody Dec. 16 after a joint undercover investigation by the University Police Department and the Department of Justice Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement.

Police were tipped off in November by a witness who told police there was a student in Graves Hall who was selling cocaine, according to a university police department crime report obtained by The Collegian.

The witness also said Dixon, who lived on the second floor of Graves Hall, helped Smith sell sometimes.

Smith was charged with three counts of selling controlled substances, according to campus police chief Michael Dunlap. Dixon was charged with two counts of possession of marijuana for sale.

Academically, both students were expelled from the CSU system, according to Smith. Robert Hernandez, judicial affairs officer of the division of student affairs, gave Smith a choice between a two-year expulsion or being banished from the CSU system for life.

Smith took the two years. Dixon’s status was not immediately known.

The witness told police Smith took a trip to his hometown of Stockton to get the cocaine. He alleged that Smith kept his cocaine in his white Pontiac Firebird or in his dorm room.

Police opened an undercover investigation where officers made several undercover drug buys from the suspects, according to Cpl. Andy Washington. Washington said those buys resulted in a search warrant being issued on the students’ Graves Hall rooms Dec. 16.

Rick Harris, a junior majoring in computer science who lived next door to Smith, said he saw two uniformed police officers rushing into John Smith’s dorm room on Dec. 16. Harris said he was on his way back from meeting with a teacher.

Harris said he never saw any suspicious activities coming out of that room before the police searched it.

Smith’s roommate, an international student who did not return this semester, could not be contacted.