July 1, 2009
FORMER FRATERNITY HEAD SENTENCED FOR
COCAINE DISTRIBUTION
The Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont stated that on Monday, June 29, 2009, Christopher Duncan, 23, of Copiague, New York, was sentenced to 2 years of probation, six months of home confinement, and a $100 special assessment for his role in a cocaine trafficking operation at the Lambda Iota Fraternity House affiliated with the University of Vermont. Duncan pleaded guilty to a felony charge for drug distribution on March 9, 2009. According to court records, during the Fall of 2006, when significant quantities of cocaine were moving through the Fraternity House, Duncan was a senior at the University of Vermont and served as President of the Lambda Iota Fraternity. Duncan met Bent Cardan, a co-conspirator who also has pleaded guilty to the conspiracy, during Duncan’s freshman year at the University of Vermont when Cardan also was a student there. Beginning in or about September 2006, Duncan allowed Cardan to keep a safe in his room at the Fraternity House to store drugs and money. Court records further indicate than many drug transactions took place at the Fraternity House. In the Spring 2007, law enforcement was able to infiltrate the distribution ring associated with the Fraternity House through an undercover investigation. The drug trafficking activity continued until the arrest of Duncan, Cardan, and another fraternity member on April 27, 2007.
Bent Cardan pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine on June 19, 2009 and is scheduled to be sentenced in October. Cardan’s out-of-state supplier, Allen Page, of New Haven, Connecticut, pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges last Fall and is currently serving a 70-month sentence.
A civil action seeking the forfeiture of the Lambda Iota Fraternity House by the United States also is pending.
The investigation in this matter was conducted by the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Burlington Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney Heather E. Ross prosecuted this case and the defendant was represented by Edward Kenney, Esq. and Richard Fish, Esq.
