Phish fans face felony charges after drug detail at MVP Arena shows
Albany, NY (WRGB) — Narcotics investigations at MVP arena during Phish concerts leave four men with drug possession charges, arrested after police found them with psychoactive drugs.
In all, the Albany County Sheriff's Office and New York State Police recovered:
- 1,380 dosages of LSD
- 381 grams of ketamine
- 274 grams of psilocybin
- 173 grams worth of Xanax pills
- 103 grams of cocaine
- 58 grams of MDMA
Most of the drugs were found during the first arrests, at Friday's show.
Ryan O'Donnell, 43, of Massachusetts faces three felony charges and one misdemeanor charge for possession of a criminal substance, and one misdemeanor charge for use of drug paraphernalia.
A Colorado man, 49-year-old Craig Zawistowski, was also arrested during Friday's investigation, facing three felony possession charges.
Further investigations Saturday resulted in the arrest of Corey Murphy-Egri and Thomas Kinsman. Murphy-Egri, 34 years old and from Massachusetts, faces three felony possession charges and a misdemeanor charge for paraphernalia. Kinsman, from Vermont and also 34 years old, faces three felony possession charges.
Deputies say O'Donnell was caught with all of the psilocybin and Xanax pills, along with a significant amount of ketamine, cocaine, and LSD. Zawistowski is accused of having the rest of the LSD--800 dosages--along with ketamine and most of the MDMA. The rest of the drugs were reportedly recovered from the two men arrested Saturday.
Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple said in a post on X that roughly 40,000 fans were in town for the three-night concert series, and there were no issues "other than a couple uses of Narcan to keep a few fans from overdosing."
All four men have been arraigned in Albany City Criminal Court.