A man who arrived in Montauk from Puerto Rico a month ago has been charged with felony possession of cocaine.
East Hampton Town police arrested Angel DeJesus Rodriguez, 30, outside the Point Bar and Grill in downtown Montauk early Friday morning. According to police, he was in possession of nine packets of cocaine with a total weight of over 500 milligrams.
“It’s for personal use,” he reportedly told the arresting officer. At his arraignment later that morning, Justice Lisa R. Rana set bail at $5,000, which was quickly posted at police headquarters, in the form of 30 hundred-dollar bills, 10 fifties, and 75 twenties.
Mr. DeJesus Rodriguez told Justice Rana that he works in the kitchen at Swallow East, where he makes about $300 a week. “You came all the way from Puerto Rico for $300 a week?” she asked.
Over the course of the 2016 season, police charged several people who had come here from the commonwealth with possessing and dealing drugs. All gave different Montauk restaurants as their employer.