The air inside an off-campus fraternity house at American University (AU) tested positive for alcohol due to the hefty amount flowing throughout a party, police said. Six members of Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) faced alcohol-related charges following the event, which had a guest list of nearly 70 people. While invitees were mainly AU students, many were underaged.

Montgomery County Police officers received complaint calls Nov. 14 regarding a loud party in a Bethesda, Maryland, neighborhood where six AU students lived. Officers that arrived at the scene immediately smelled a strong odor of alcohol coming from inside the off-campus party, dubbed "Tequila Tuesday Hoy a las 22:00." Upon entry, an officer used a breathalyzer to test the air inside the house, which registered at .01 percent.

"The ambient alcohol registered by the breath device would be a combination of breath alcohol, alcoholic beverages, and spilled alcohol," Dwain C. Fuller, a forensic toxicologist, said Wednesday to BuzzFeed News. "Something as simple as using ethanol-based hand sanitizer in a closed room or vehicle can result in an ambient alcohol of 0.03 g/dL or probably greater."

Police at the scene confirmed the basement windows were covered with trash bags, which is where most of the attendees were partying. Beer cans and liquor bottles were scattered all over the house. Officers also observed that the basement's floor was "sticky and covered with alcoholic beverage," according to court documents obtained by BuzzFeed News.

Officers administered breathalyzer tests on the college-aged partygoers after the house's indoor air tested positive for alcohol. They set up multiple stations outside of the home to test the attendee's as the exited the event, according to WJLA. All tested individuals were 17, 18, 19 and 20 years old.

Ashton Acosta, Kevin Alkinburg, Jeffrey Becker, Matthew Berger, Tristan Ralph and Anthony Santana all divulged to local law enforcement that they resided at the off-campus residence. All the male tenants were 20 years old. The six SAE brothers each received 126 counts of permitting underage possession of alcohol and providing alcohol to minors. They also faced fines up to $315,000 regarding their involvement in the event.

SAE's chapter at American University has been sanctioned following the November incident. It's also on disciplinary probation, social probation and their recruitment privileges have been suspended for their violations of the university's Student Conduct Code.

"All American University fraternities and sororities are off-campus and are required to abide by the University Good Neighbor Guidelines and Off-Campus Conduct Policies, part of the AU Student Conduct Code," AU said in a statement issued Thursday to International Business Times. "While the University holds students accountable for their conduct, the national chapter of SAE is accountable for the risk management of its chapter."

"American University requires all recognized fraternities and sororities to have both liability insurance and risk management insurance," AU added.

The fraternity's headquarter was made aware of the incident involving six of its members from AU. SAE confirmed to IBT that it won't fail to impose sanctions on members that fail to abide by its strict guidelines.

"Chapter officers worked quickly and diligently to report the incident to university officials and fully cooperated with local authorities," SAE said in a statement issued to IBT. "We commend the group for their swift actions in this matter. Sigma Alpha Epsilon continues to work with campus administrators and chapter leaders to gain more information, with appropriate sanctions possible pending the outcome of any investigation by the campus or local authorities."

A representative for the Montgomery County Police Department did not immediately return International Business Times' request for comment.

This story was updated to include statements from American University and Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

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