2 students arrested on cocaine charges

Two IU students were arrested early Tuesday morning for cocaine-related charges as a four-month IU Police Department investigation came to an end.\nThe sting began Monday in the parking lot of McNutt Quad, said Detective David Hannum, who led the investigation.\nIUPD made "a controlled purchase of cocaine" from Robert C. McKibben II, 19. The purchase was one of three purchases that Hannum said IUPD has made since October.\nAfter the purchase, IUPD officers used a search warrant they had previously obtained to search McKibben's dorm room in McNutt. Police found marijuana in the room but no cocaine or any of the dollar bills IUPD had marked in their past purchases, Hannum said.\nMcKibben was arrested on three counts of dealing cocaine and taken to the Monroe County Jail.\nMcKibben did, however, provide a lead to officers, directing them to a residence at 1333 N. Washington Ave., Hannum said.\nAt 2:30 a.m. Tuesday, police presented a search warrant to Clinton A. Custer, 22, a resident of the Washington Avenue location where police found cocaine, marijuana, a digital scale and many of the marked bills from IUPD.\n"Obviously, Mr. Custer is also a middleman, because he wasn't sitting on a lot of cocaine," Hannum said. "He did have a lot of marijuana, though."\nHannum said this leads him to believe Custer was more involved with the marijuana-dealing scene.\nHannum also believes Custer was the source of McKibben's cocaine supply, given the presence of the marked bills.\nCuster was arrested on preliminary charges of three class D felonies: possession of marijuana over 30 grams, cocaine possession and maintaining a common nuisance. He was taken to the Monroe County Jail.