Six students at the University of California, Santa Cruz were arrested on Friday for their alleged involvement with an organized drug sales ring, the Santa Cruz Police Department said.
All of the students are 21 years old and are members of either the Lambda Phi Epsilon fraternity or Alpha Kappa Delta Phi sorority.
The students are accused of shipping several packages filled with MDMA (street name Ecstasy) from overseas through the US Postal Service, according to Santa Cruz police.
The department said the packages were bound for three addresses in the city, all residences of the students.
On Friday, after the drug shipments were delivered, law enforcement served search warrants at the three residences. Two of the homes are located off Nobel Drive, at Castillion Terrace and Peach Terrace, the third is near the corner of Locust and Pine Streets.
Police say more than $100,000 in MDMA tablets -- a total of 4.1 pounds or 5,000 tablets -- were seized and another large shipment, destined for the same group, was cut-off by Homeland Security.
The drug is commonly associated with dance parties, raves and electronic dance music, according to the World Health Organization.
Four of the students are charged with Conspiracy and Possession of Controlled Substance for Sale: Mariah Dremel, Benny Liu, Nathan Tieu and Cesar Casil. The other two, Hoai Nguyen and Ceilia Le, are charged with Possession of Controlled Substance.
