Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

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UW students sentenced for dealing ecstasy

Six men, including three University of Wisconsin students, were sentenced Friday to prison terms ranging from two to nearly six years with no possibility of parole for distributing ecstasy on the UW campus.

Ashkan Farhadieh, 22, was sentenced to 65 months imprisonment, Matthew Louie, 23, was sentenced to 63 months in prison, and Ghassan Majdalani, 22, faces a 37-month sentence.

The men were involved in a conspiracy to channel 116,000 ecstasy pills from the Netherlands, where the drug is primarily manufactured, to Florida, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin between January 2000 and December 2001.

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The group’s supplier in Miami, Augusto Rodriguez, 25, was sentenced to 51 months in prison.

Steven Larson, 26, who served as a middle man for Rodriguez, was sentenced to 70 months in prison. Larson’s and Rodriguez’s sentences were heavy because of their continued involvement in ecstasy distribution after penalty guidelines changed and became harsher.

However, Larson and Rodriguez said they accepted their punishments and only hoped to deter others from making the same mistakes.

“If I could stop another person from ruining their life, then I could bring something positive out of this,” Larson said. “I accept the responsibility for this crime, and I have already become a better person.”

UW student Ashkan Farhadieh also wanted others to realize the severe penalties for drug dealing. He wrote a letter to U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb, hoping it would be published.

“There is no excuse for what I’ve done,” he said. “I hope I can put this all behind me.”

Instead of graduating last spring with a double major in political science and international relations, Farhadieh was sentenced to five and a half years in prison.

Farhadieh’s lawyer, Michael Fitzgerald, said he thought the prison term was fair, given the circumstances.

“These kids should be starting jobs or grad school, and instead they’re going to prison,” Fitzgerald said. “I hope this wakes up a lot of kids about the dangers of using and buying ecstasy.”

Ashkan’s brother, Paymon Farhadieh, received a lighter sentence of two years in prison, due to his complete abandonment of drug-related activity after graduating from Penn State and beginning work at J.P. Morgan in New York.

Ecstasy is a synthetic, psychoactive drug with both stimulant and hallucinogenic properties. Effects of the drug include the repressed desire to eat, drink or sleep.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, ecstasy use could result in increased heart rate and blood pressure, nausea, faintness and long-term brain damage.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim O’Shea said the message that should be taken away from the sentencing is the danger of ecstasy use and distribution.

“Ecstasy permanently impairs brain function,” O’Shea said. “The terrible irony is that people come to the university to get smarter, and instead they leave college dumber. It is not a hug drug; it is something far worse.”

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