There was a brief spell last winter when he was the hottest marijuana dealer in Akron.
Bags of weed literally flew from his hands. Veteran drug agents even marveled at his quickness, his sheer ability to dish out pounds of pot while barely breaking a sweat.
His drug-dealing skills were reminiscent of his work on the basketball court, where he was directing the upstart University of Akron Zips.
Not coincidently, the two vocations Alex Abreu embraced could not co-exist. They collided one day in March, when Akron police arrested the star point guard for drug trafficking. That same day, he was suspended from the UA basketball squad.
Abreu has since left UA.
Neither Abreu nor his attorney could be reached for comment on this article.
There was a time when a return to the Zips was possible, and Abreu was meeting with police detectives while attempting a comeback of sorts at UA, just as his coach did years earlier while resurrecting his own career.
Taped recordings released this week by Summit County prosecutors reveal Abreu and his attorney met privately with narcotics agents just days after his arrest.
The March 11 meeting was a tell-all session with drug agents, designed to be what Abreu’s attorney called the basketball player’s “first step” in his comeback.
It came after a session between Abreu and his coach, Keith Dambrot, who has resuscitated his career after his firing 20 years ago for misconduct while coaching at Central Michigan University.
“This guy realizes he’s ruined his life here,” attorney Robert Meeker tells the agents during the taped interview.
“It’s unbelievable,” Abreu mutters.
“He was going to play pro basketball somewhere,” Meeker continues. “Now, that’s all up in the air. But like Dambrot told him, he resurrected his life from his incident ... which was a tragedy, and he never thought he’d coach again.
“So, [Dambrot] suggested that he came back and Alex can come back. So, this is the first step in coming back, Alex.”
“We’ll see. Hopefully,” Abreu said.
Burgeoning business
Abreu was arrested March 7, after a 5-pound box of marijuana was sent through the U.S. Postal Service from California to the home of Abreu’s friend on East Dartmore Avenue in Akron.
It wasn’t the first time Abreu had marijuana mailed to him.
Abreu, 21, told detectives that initial street sales in Akron were brisk, and the shipment they uncovered was the third marijuana package mailed to him since February.
His street dealing, according to Abreu, started small in late 2012, when he worked his first drug deal. He purchased $900 of pot from his personal dealer and quickly sold it to a friend for $1,100.
The $200 profit, which he used for Christmas presents for his mother and girlfriend, prompted him to seek more opportunities and “make some quick money,” Abreu told detectives.
Later, after losing contact with his local source, a friend from Puerto Rico put Abreu in touch with a California supplier. Using money he received through financial aid, Abreu said he made his first purchases of 2 pounds in mid February. It was mailed to a friend’s home near the UA campus.
Abreu told police detectives he was able to sell the 2 pounds in less than a weekend, all while making a $2,000 profit, as friends and other UA students bought in small quantities.
Abreu said he never sold marijuana to his teammates or other UA athletes.
“I didn’t really involve myself with other athletes,” he told detectives. “That’s the way I worked with my teammates, too. I promised myself if I ever get caught, I wasn’t going to involve anybody else that had something to lose.”
For his second shipment, Abreu said he wanted the delivery made farther away from campus. He said he elicited help from Austin Durgala, a local rapper he met during his freshman year at UA.
He said he paid Durgala $50 for taking the delivery at his East Dartmore Avenue home. Like the other delivery that same month, he sold the 2 pounds of weed fast to street dealers and users a few ounces at a time.
Abreu’s fledgling drug business appeared to become a popular stop around the UA campus.
“How did you move it so quickly?” a detective asked Abreu during the meeting. “I mean, were you the ‘Weed Man’ in Akron?”
“For the last two or three weeks, I probably was,” Abreu said. “It helped a lot that it’s really dry in Akron right now. I’d sell it to one person, and he’d be back the same day ... [T]hey kept coming and coming and coming.”
A sudden end
It all came to an abrupt end March 7, when a K-9 police dog sniffed out a 5-pound package of weed being shipped to the East Dartmore home. Police records show the package was delivered, and Durgala, 18, accepted it for Abreu. Once Abreu arrived at the home, he was arrested.
It was the eve of the Zips’ final regular-season game — against rival Kent State — and days before the Mid-American Conference Tournament.
While being interviewed that night, Abreu declined to identify the men who arranged for the weed to be sent to him. He told narcotics officers he intended to accept responsibility on his own “like a man.”
During the same interview, Abreu does speak of hoping to bail out of jail in time to play against Kent State. In the end, he and the detectives quickly agree his arrest is something that could not be kept quiet from the university or the media.
“Five pounds of marijuana was mailed from California. I mean, it’s kind of a big deal,” an agent tells Abreu.
“It is a big deal,” Abreu said. “I’m just trying to think about my team right now. Obviously, I should have thought about it before. I’m just trying to see, you know. We play Kent State tomorrow ... and that’s all I’m worried about right now.”
Another detective interrupted.
“I think you just made the most honest statement you could have possibly made. You said, ‘I guess I should have thought of that before.’ ”
UA lost the regular-season game against Kent State without Abreu, their starting point guard, but went on to beat their rivals a week later in the MAC Tournament and won the title game against favored Ohio University the next night. The Zips, however, were ousted in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Abreu and Durgala, meanwhile, each pleaded guilty to felony marijuana trafficking and received probation.
Any hope of an Abreu comeback in Akron went up in smoke when he was arrested in July for an unspecified probation violation. He spent two days in the Summit County Jail before being released.
He has since left the school, UA officials said Tuesday. It is unclear where, or if, Abreu will continue his basketball or academic career.
“It’s like a nightmare I still wake up from,” Abreu conceded to detectives.
Phil Trexler can be reached at 330-996-3717 or ptrexler@thebeaconjournal.com. He can be followed on Twitter at www.twitter.com/PhilTrexler