A motorcyclist who East Hampton Town police said was driving drunk is in critical condition after a crash in Springs on Sunday morning. 

Byron Mora-Llauca, 24, of East Hampton was riding his Kawasaki motorcycle north on Three Mile Harbor-Hog Creek Road, when he veered off the road and struck a tree at 5:24 a.m. He "suffered serious physical injuries" and was airlifted to Stony Brook University Hospital, where police said he was in critical condition Sunday morning. 

Mr. Mora-Llauca was charged with driving while intoxicated and criminal possession of a controlled substance. Detective Sgt. Daniel Toia said the motorcyclist had a small amount of cocaine on him. 

No further information was immediately available.

Detectives are continuing to investigate. Anyone who may have witnessed the accident has been asked to contact the East Hampton Town Police Department at 631-537-7575. All calls will be kept confidential. 

They were both Democratic hopefuls, after all, and the criticisms and ­policy differences were articulated gently when East Hampton Town Councilman David Lys and David Gruber, a former chairman of the town’s Democratic Committee who is challenging him in next Thursday’s Democratic primary, met Tuesday night in a debate hosted by the East Hampton Group for Good Government. 

There is division in the party, however. Save for a very small group of East Hampton Republicans, who have nominated Manny Vilar to contest the town board seat to which Mr. Lys was appointed in January, the Emergency Services Building in East Hampton was filled with members of the Democratic Committee and of the East Hampton Reform Democrats, a group Mr. Gruber, who leads it, has described as a caucus within the party. 

Formed after the committee chose Mr. Lys over Mr. Gruber as its nominee for the seat vacated by Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc’s election to supervisor in November, the Reform Democrats are running a full slate of candidates for the Democratic Committee, a group that coalesced in the wake of an acrimonious process to select a successor to its chairwoman, Jeanne Frankl, who retired this year. 

Arthur Malman, the G.G.G.’s chairman, asked the candidates a series of questions. Despite his encouragement to interrupt one another as they saw fit, gentility was the clear winner; Mr. Gruber did not direct his frequent criticism of the town board directly at his opponent, nor did he make an issue of Mr. Lys’s recent change in party affiliation, from Republican to Democratic. Rather, he touted his longtime leadership of the party and suggested that the current 5-0 Democratic control of the town board “is because nobody has worked harder to achieve that than me.” He believes in the board’s policy positions, he told the audience, because he personally drafted them. 

That, he said, is what animates his candidacy. He became concerned in 2015, he said, that the party was “not achieving things we’d promised the community,” such as clean water, controlling noise related to East Hampton Airport, combating coastal erosion, and transparency in government. By last year, “I was no longer convinced the Dem­ocrats were able or willing to do what we’d been telling the community all these years.” That isn’t because they don’t want to, Mr. Gruber said; rather that they do not know how. “That’s why I’ve decided to run.”

Some, said Mr. Lys, a former member of the town’s zoning board of appeals, “have tried to create a false narrative” that he is not “a true Democrat.” Indeed, many of them were in the room as he repeated an assertion that his former Republican Party affiliation amounted to nothing more than following his father’s instruction when he registered to vote. He had “never acted on any political agenda” or attended a political function as a Republican, he said, and he is now aligned with the Democratic Committee. Mr. Lys, a founding member of Citizens for Access Rights and Paddlers for Humanity, listed strict environmental principals, planning foresight, and economic development among his priorities. 

In a broad criticism of the town board, Mr. Gruber said that East Hampton was not “a small town in a cornfield in Iowa,” but a unique place where it is “unrealistic that any five people could have background or expertise in the full range of problems we face.” The town should solicit expert consultants and tap its own “extraordinary human resources” to solve intractable problems, he said. It not only needs to have “a good consultant, you have to be a knowledgeable client to supervise, or you’re likely to get nothing useful. We don’t even have a knowledgeable client.” 

He cited aircraft noise and its impact on quality of life for many residents as an example. His political life began 20 years ago, Mr. Gruber said, when he joined Pat Trunzo, a former councilman who is seeking election to the Democratic Committee as a Reform Democrat, in working to enact noise restrictions. The town board ignored recommendations he made as chairman of the airport planning committee’s noise subcommittee, he said, and “the ultimate outcome is essentially a disaster.” A federal appeals court barred the town in 2016 from enforcing laws aimed at reducing aircraft noise, and the town is now engaged in a lengthy process to re-impose restrictions. 

“The opportunity Pat and I worked for, for close to 15 years . . . has been squandered by a town board that didn’t know what it was doing, and wouldn’t listen to people who do know, have expertise, and were pleading behind the scenes,” Mr. Gruber said.  

For his part, Mr. Lys agreed that aircraft noise is “a tremendous burden for many residents” and that it is up to the town board to control it. “I don’t think we should take closing the airport off the table,” he said. “Keep the pressure on.”

On the subject of poor cellphone reception in many parts of town, Mr. Lys said that “We deserve the best possible service” More cell towers are needed, he said, provided they are installed “with an eye to the character of neighborhoods.” He cited a little-known tower on the East Hampton Presbyterian Church as an example.

Mr. Gruber answered a question about reasonably priced housing with a mantra he applied to several topics: Assess the current state of affairs and then determine the desired outcome. “The comprehensive plan set a goal of 1,300 units of affordable housing to serve multiple purposes,” including for senior citizens, young working families, and the seasonal workforce, he said. “At the rate we’re currently going . . . it’s going to take 200 to 300 years” to achieve that goal. Collectively, we must assess the need, determine the price, and acknowledge that affordable housing will necessarily be denser than typical residential structures, and also acknowledge impacts on schools, the tax base, and water quality.”

“These are answerable questions if we get down to it,” he said. “There’s enough land in East Hampton if we have the political will.” 

The ongoing hamlet studies, Mr. Lys said, are informing an understanding and design of affordable housing. “We have to look at where we can put overlay districts” where such housing could be built, he said. But Mr. Gruber said that existing affordable housing overlays “have essentially failed. That’s what I mean when I say we’re just not getting things done.” 

Alongside the acute shortage of affordable housing, the town is failing its growing population of senior citizens who are financially squeezed by the high cost of living, and particularly of housing, Mr. Gruber said. “We’ve been talking about this for many years and have not been getting the job done,” he said. “We need to own that responsibility — if we’re not going to get the job done, we need to stop talking about it and tell seniors to make other plans. We’ve got to do one or the other, we cannot go forward year after year, making the same promises in the platform and not delivering. That’s why I’m here, doing this.” 

A brief back-and-forth on the thorny question of reassessment followed. Should it happen, Mr. Lys said, “I fear that longtime residents whose houses are assessed at $2,000 to $3,000 — their assessments will go up so high, because they live in a lovely place and have been here for generations — that they’ll lose their homes.”

“This is a political hot potato,” Mr. Gruber said. “We need a pilot study. How many people will be unable to stay? That might be a good use of [community preservation fund] money,” he said. 

The crowd of about 150 listened politely, and each candidate’s closing statement drew applause. The question for Democratic voters in next Thursday’s primary can be seen as a choice between a candidate who points to accomplishments in the eight months he has been on the board and asks for an opportunity to further prove himself while serving the final year of Mr. Van Scoyoc’s term, or an experienced party official who says the Democrats are floundering and promises competency and action.

“Which reminds me, I should check on the Twinkies,” I told Amy Zerner on Saturday. I was at an end-of-summer dinner party hosted by the glamorous grande dame of crime fiction, the English novelist and screenwriter Lynda La Plante. Monte, an astrologer and Amy’s husband, was talking about the grand trine and the night’s sturgeon moon to the film and TV producers Debra Kent and Jane Raab, while the music producer Richard Alderson looked down at his plate and said, “We haven’t had an ugly leading man since Humphrey Bogart,” and Linda, bringing out appetizers herself, complained again about the servants, vowed to get new ones — there were no servants — when Simon Kirke, the drummer of Bad Company, with his wife, the actress Maria Angelica smiling at his side, asked how we’d met. 

“She interviewed us for her column back in June, before the first day of summer, when she wanted to know about the solstice,” Amy answered, as a fire alarm went off in the kitchen, and Linda, rising, sighed and swore she’d fire every last one of them.

It wasn’t explicitly an end-of-summer party, but that morning everything felt different. I’d woken up and put on my Star Island Shark Tournament sweatshirt before heading out to watch the sunrise, and it occurred to me that I hadn’t worn a sweater since I’d bought this one after my adventure back in June. The sky was still dark as I walked with my coffee down the block toward Gardiner’s Bay. 

The day grew into itself, as the end of summer is also its peak, and so it was easy to forget in all the later heat the brief moment of cold that preceded it. Only when I wandered under some shady bit where the sun couldn’t reach did I remember something was different about today. 

I went shopping at Collette in Southampton, hoping to stock up on evening gowns at the big annual sale. I swanned past the vintage furs, ran my hand over the St. John Knits, and tied a silk scarf round my neck and looked in the mirror. I was in the fitting room, trying to get a red sequin thing over my shoulders, when I heard the saleswoman say to her younger assistant, “The days are getting shorter now. Beautiful weather today, but you can feel the fall coming.” 

“Don’t say that!” the young one answered.

But it wasn’t just the temperature. The sound was different too. Everything seemed quieter, which doesn’t really make sense, as looking around I saw more crowds than ever — the people on the long line outside Sam’s Pizza on Newtown Lane nodding in solidarity to those on the long line outside Scoop du Jour across the way. And yet I heard things more clearly, words separated from the noise, wandered out of the crowds: Pulling out of the Citarella parking lot, a husband said to a wife, “But you know I hate small talk. Why did you make me say hello to her?” 

I wore a sleeveless red dress that I hadn’t yet worn this summer to the Hampton Classic on opening morning. I was waiting under the tent with Kim Tudor, who was telling me about how they rate the horses in areas like “way of going,” which is “you know, how it moves, how it goes.” 

Kim was in charge of prizes and explained to me what I’d have to do a few moments later. The horses would finish jumping, I’d follow her down the steps and onto the field holding a bundle of colorful ribbons and medals, and then one by one congratulate the winners of the East Hampton Star Prize, turning “this way” for a photo. The sky was a perfect blue when a breeze passed through the tent where together we stood, watching a gray horse whose braided main reminded me of Bo Derek’s, and I shivered.

I was perspiring in the press tent on the opposite side at noon, as Larry Drucker, a photographer, told us about his adventures directing the Thanksgiving Day Parade and the Super Bowl at NBC. “What’s the number for?” he said he’d asked when he was handed a number in a hotel lobby in Russia in 1980, just before the Americans called off their participation in the Olympics, and he and his crew were called home. “ ‘For your egg,’ the guy says. We each got one egg and the eggs were numbered.” I felt happy sitting among the journalists, the stylish Durell Godfrey, this paper’s photographer, and the stolid Jack Graves, this paper’s sports editor and columnist, whose incisive and sometimes melancholic prose belies his demeanor, like I was part of something, now ending. 

“It must be fun going to all the parties,” a few have said when I told them of my summer column, but the real perk is Thursday morning editorial meetings in the front room at The Star, when the staff turn their chairs grumpily toward the center and David walks in, late, with a suspiciously wet head — surfing? The leafy trees blow silently outside the closed windows, as a single air-conditioner brays, making it impossible to hear why David has asked Jamie if he’ll go underwater in a shark cage. 

Jamie, next to me, says yes, before talk turns to the lifeguard bathing suit scandal, or outraged bar patrons who showed up at Town Hall to protest the early closing of their favorite haunt, and then turns again to the summer’s biggest story — the construction and completion of the roundabout on Route 114. “Who wants to write a ‘Relay’?” David asks. 

And Durell wears a different and wonderful pair of glasses every week, and the intern gets younger as the summer wears. Today I look over, and he is the starchild at the end of “2001.” It’s his last day, he says from the womb. And Chris rustles the paper, and Carissa sighs, and Helen asks Jack why a 5-year-old is pictured crossing the finish line at the marathon — “Did she run too?” — and Taylor wonders what it feels like to get tazed, and Isabel’s dog makes the rounds, electing each week a different one of us as her favorite. There was a week in July when she sat at my feet. “Hello, room!” Durell says when she walks in. Does Baylis look up? Does Mark clear his throat? What is Jen typing?

“I saw Donna Karan and Matt Lauer at the Classic and bought three new hats. Can I get a clothing budget? Also, I went fishing. I could write about that,” I say when it’s my turn.

I’d gone fishing with a party of 12 happy men and Angie Firestone in honor of her husband Eric’s birthday. “7 a.m. sharp,” the invitation read. We each showed up to the dock in successive waves following the hour, before Eric and Angie themselves arrived at 7:45. 

On the Ebb Tide, I caught a porgie and then a black bass to match my outfit. Then I napped under a large hat while the boys attacked the ocean, before a horn periodically told them to reel in, as the boat was moving to a new location. All day we approached the Montauk Lighthouse on our right, and, drifting back, approached it again. We touched land at 3 p.m. and promised to join the Firestones for dinner at their house, where they’d cook the fish we caught.

“If you were trapped on a desert island, what would you want with you?” Dan Meeks asked, next to the banquet table set up among the trees.

“An omelette bar,” said Jordan Smith, without hesitation. “You know, like they have in hotels, so you can have a different omelette every morning.” Angie relit a candle that had blown out, before greeting more guests.

“What if you could only have either the omelette bar or the chef, like, you can have a chef, but he doesn’t have anything to cook with?”

“Something about the end of summer, I don’t know,” I said at the editorial meeting. 

In movies, the presence of a ghost will make the room cold. And when that doesn’t work, an air-conditioner. Last Thursday, it was hot again, as if the summer were refusing to die. A/C haunted the office, its dirge drowning all our voices. “This will be my last column,” I said into the hum.

At the Bridgehampton cemetery, I sat under a low tree beside a tombstone whose markings faced the other way. The tree had grown up in the wrong place, I guess, nearly covering the stone that faced it, obscuring its message. 

I ate a sandwich I’d picked up from Yama-Q after shopping for secondhand books in the Bridgehampton Book Bay next to the firehouse, my favorite thing to do when time is my own. I spread a towel and sat down and looked at the shadows cast by the grave markers, like sundials marking time. I hope when I’m gone someone might choose to have lunch with me on the hottest and sunniest day of the year, I thought, as an ant stole into the container that held my sandwich, picked up a small rogue leaf, and made off with it back into the grass. 

I was walking along Lazy Point Road last night when a woman pedaled past me on her bicycle, holding a mushroom in one hand. A few minutes later, a BMW passed the other way and the same woman hopped out of the passenger side and began collecting a whole stash of mushrooms stacked in a pile beside the road. In handfuls she put them in the car, while the man driving yelled, “Leave them, don’t take all of them!” 

“But they’re already picked!” 

“Leave them!” 

“But they’re already picked!”

The bugs don’t know summer is over. Or they do, and are biting more aggressively, aware that it’s last call. They need to eat too, I remind myself, and so try not to bother too much about their nibbling, as I make my way over to the bay at dusk. A few young turkeys in the driveway scattered when I stepped outside.

Who was it I had lunch with in the cemetery? Was he sad at the end of another summer in 1809? 

The sky was a heavy pink Sunday night — there was a party somewhere and also somewhere else; I didn’t go — with a great cloud overhead like a shroud about to be laid down. I walked east, passing a few couples set up on the beach along the bay, sipping wine, watching the sun dip below the horizon, appreciating, I guess, its way of going. Nearby a few seagulls, less sentimental, stood with their backs to the sunset. Lined up on a jetty, each on its own stone, they looked instead toward tomorrow.

A teenager from Calverton was caught with a loaded handgun and two pounds of marijuana during a traffic in Sag Harbor Village on Monday evening, Chief Austin J. McGuire said. 

Police Officer David Hansen was on patrol when he saw a 1998 Nissan make an improper turn onto Main Street at about 10:10 p.m. He stopped the vehicle on Long Island Avenue.

The driver and owner of the Nissan, Deandre M. Owens, 19, of Calverton, was in possession of a loaded 9-millimeter handgun and two pounds of marijuana, the chief said. The gun had been defaced — the serial number had been removed. 

Police did not indicate where the weapon and the marijuana were found. 

Mr. Owens was charged with criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree, a felony, criminal possession of marijuana, also a felony, criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree, a misdemeanor, and multiple traffic infractions. 

He was arraigned in Sag Harbor Village Justice Court on Tuesday morning and held on $10,000 bail. 

The passenger in the vehicle, Niekko Massicci, 20, of Calverton, was arrested on a bench warrant out of Riverhead Town Justice Court. He was turned over to the Riverhead Town Police Department. 

A 22-year-old man died in an apparent drowning in Springs late Sunday. 

Brett Friedberg's body was pulled from the pool at 117 Waterhole Road in the Clearwater neighborhood, East Hampton Town Police Capt. Chris Anderson said Monday morning. People at the house called 911 shortly after 11 p.m., after finding him floating in water, he said.  

A Springs Fire Department ambulance transported him to Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. 

Mr. Friedberg, who is from Port Washington, had been staying at the house with acquaintances, according to Captain Anderson. He had last been seen about 30 minutes before he was found, the police captain said. There was a large group of people at the house. 

There was nothing to indicate foul play and there were no obvious signs that Mr. Friedberg had hit his head, Captain Anderson said, but the investigation is continuing.  

A Mastic man was arrested Saturday night after a shooting on the Shinnecock Indian Reservation, which is holding its annual powwow this weekend. No one was injured in the gunfire, state police said.

Troopers assigned to a security detail at the powwow heard shots fired nearby at about 8 p.m. They ran toward the sound and saw a man, later identified as Devon Trent, 23, fighting with other men.

Witnesses told police that Mr. Trent was holding a black semi-automatic gun and had fired one shot. After an unidentified man who was closest to Mr. Trent grabbed the weapon, a physical altercation occurred and a second shot was fired, the troopers said.

Witnesses told police the unidentified man ran from the area with the gun and that he was headed to security.

His identity and the location of the gun were still unknown as of Sunday afternoon.

Mr. Trent was charged with four felonies: criminal possession of a weapon in the second and third degrees, reckless endangerment in the first degree, and criminal possession of marijuana in the second degree. He was also charged with second-degree menacing, a misdemeanor.

The state police forensic identity unit responded and recovered two 40-caliber expanded casings and two 40-caliber rounds. The investigation is continuing.

One man is under arrest and another injured following what East Hampton Town police described as a slashing at the 7-Eleven in Montauk on Sunday morning.

Police responded to a report of a fight at the 7-Eleven on Montauk Highway at 4:51 a.m. An argument inside the convenience store had spilled outside, Detective Sgt. Dan Toia said. Police found the victim, John Valentin-Doherty, 30, of Montauk, at the Memory Motel across the street with multiple lacerations to his face and arm. The Montauk Fire Department ambulance took him to Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, where he was treated and released.

Christopher S. Pulido, 26, of East Hampton was arrested at the 7-Eleven and charged with second-degree assault, a felony, fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon, a misdemeanor, and disorderly conduct, a violation. Justice Steven Tekulsky set bail at $10,000 cash and $20,000 bond. Mr. Pulido is being held at the Suffolk County jail in Riverside and is due back in court today.

Mr. Valentin-Doherty was one of 17 men arrested as part of the Montauk drug ring bust last month. He has been free on $10,000 cash bail since Aug. 17 following an arrest on seven misdemeanor drug charges. He is due back in court on Sept. 27 on those charges.

Mr. Pulido is also no stranger to police. In 2014, he had 20 unresolved charges against him in East Hampton Town Justice Court, stemming from eight arrests, mainly on misdemeanor and petty larceny charges, when he was picked up on an arrest warrant.

Anyone with information regarding this incident has been asked to contact the East Hampton Town Police Detective Division at 631-537-6989. All calls will be kept confidential.  

This article was updated since it was first published. 

A 36-year-old man who, according to East Hampton Town police, "refused to cooperate with officers, then sped off from a parked position at an unsafe and imprudent speed," allegedly dragged an officer clinging to his vehicle about 15 to 20 feet through the parking lot of the Montauk 7-Eleven early Saturday morning. Police said the officer, Andrew Nimmo, was "thrown from the vehicle" and experienced "significant pain and multiple abrasions requiring medical attention."

The incident began at about 4:45 a.m., when, according to a release, police spotted "what appeared to be a group of apparently intoxicated subjects who had just gotten into a 2001 GMC" in front of the store. Andrew D. Hellman was behind the wheel. When police approached to question him, he "put the vehicle in drive as the officer was attempting to prevent him from doing so," and sped off "at an unsafe and imprudent speed," said the criminal complaint filed against him hours later in East Hampton Town Justice Court.

He drove out of the parking lot onto Montauk Highway, but lost control of the GMC within about 100 yards. It overturned across from the Kirk Park parking lot, according to the accident report.

The criminal complaint said Mr. Hellman had 20 plastic bags of cocaine and one small glass jar — enough to justify a charge of drug possession with intent to sell. The aggregate weight of the cocaine was one-eighth ounce or more, the complaint said. He also was reported to have five pills, believed to be Adderall, one believed to be Vyvanse, and two halves of a green rectangular pill said to be Alprazolam, all in a Ziploc-type bag found in the car.

Mr. Hellman was seen in handcuffs sitting on the grass by the S.U.V. shortly after the accident. He was not hurt, nor were his four passengers, Mattew W. Schuppe, 30, Christopher L. Metz, 43, Rebecca A. Shumskis, 33, and William McFarland, 37. Mr. Metz was charged with unlawful possession of marijuana. The road was shut down for about four hours while police investigated. The GMC was impounded.

Mr. Hellman, who told the judge he had moved from Sag Harbor to East Hampton recently, faces three felony charges: criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree with intent to sell, criminal possession of narcotics in the fourth degree, and assault with intent to cause physical injury with a deadly weapon, as well as five misdemeanors: driving while intoxicated, reckless endangerment in the second degree, and three counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the seventh degree.

Carl Irace, the lawyer who represented Mr. Hellman before East Hampton Town Justice Steven Tekulsky at his arraignment later that morning, argued that his client was unlikely to be indicted on the charges and that the aggregate weight of the cocaine was unlikely to be as much as police alleged. He suggested that Mr. Hellman, who told Justice Tekulsky he had grown up here, graduated from East Hampton High School, and was a real estate agent at Town & Country Real Estate, be released on his own recognizance, but suggested $2,500 if the court chose to set bail.

Because of the nature of the charges, Justice Tekulsky told Mr. Hellman, and the fact that he had attempted to flee while being investigated for a criminal charge, he would set bail. He set it at $2,500 on each of the felonies, for a total of $7,500 cash or $15,000 bond.

"Anytime someone gets injured, including the first responders who dutifully serve our community, we always hope for a speedy recovery," Mr. Irace said after the proceeding. "The driver in this case denies the allegations and looks forward to returning to court to fight the case."

Mr. Hellman's father and girlfriend were in the courtroom, but whether he would be able to make bail was unclear following his arraignment. Because he had refused to submit to a chemical breathalyzer test, Justice Tekulsky also suspended his driver's license. The State Department of Motor Vehicles will hold a hearing on the matter on Sept. 5; Mr. Hellman is due back in court the day after.

Officer Nimmo was treated and released from Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, police said.

Montauk Highway was closed for four hours Saturday morning near the Kirk Park parking lot in Montauk after sport utility vehicle rolled over there.

East Hampton Town police are investigating the crash, which took place just west of the 7-Eleven at approximately 4:30 a.m. The S.U.V. landed on is side opposite the Kirk Park restroom.

Chief Michael Sarlo said occupants of the vehicle were not seriously injured, but that an investigation is ongoing.

All occupants were wearing seatbelts, according to a firefighter at the scene.

The Montauk Fire Department's heavy rescue squad, an engine, and two ambulances responded to the accident.

At about 7:30 a.m., police were seen taking photographs of the vehicle and its inside contents and handing small items around.

The road was being opened around 9 a.m., according to Chief Sarlo. 

Additional details were not immediately available. This article will be updated when more information becomes available.

With Reporting by David E. Rattray

A 33-count indictment against six of the 17 men arrested in the bust of a major Montauk drug ring earlier this month plus an additional defendant was unsealed in Suffolk County Criminal Court on Thursday.

The five men in court, all from Puerto Rico and working seasonal jobs in restaurants in Montauk, are accused of running the largest drug ring on the South Fork, making as much as $100,000 in three weeks, according to William Nash, an assistant district attorney with District Attorney Timothy D. Sini's narcotics bureau. A grand jury handed down the indictment on Aug. 24.

Geraldo Vargas-Munoz, known as Chelo, is facing 25 years to life, Mr. Nash told Justice Timothy Mazzei. He described him as a "major trafficker" and the "largest purveyor" of cocaine and oxycodone in Montauk. He allegedly sold drugs out the back door of the kitchen at Swallow East, where he worked as a chef, and also supplied others with narcotics to sell. 

He was charged with "a litany of felony offenses," including operating as a major trafficker — a top-level drug felony — and conspiracy in the second degree, after a five-month investigation by the Suffolk County district attorney's office and its East End Drug Task Force. 

Mr. Vargas-Munoz, 37, who has been in the custody of the Suffolk County sheriff's office since his arrest two weeks ago, stood silent before the judge. Walter Zornes, a Hampton Bays attorney who represented Mr. Vargas-Munoz at arraignment because the attorney his family had retained was out of town, entered a plea of not guilty. 

Police used court-authorized eavesdropping and electronic surveillance, as well as undercover drug buys, in their investigation. In one instance, the assistant district attorney told the court, Mr. Vargas-Munoz sold 67 grams of cocaine to an undercover officer. 

On Aug. 14, police arrested Mr. Vargas-Munoz after he dropped his co-defendant Elvin Silva-Ruiz off at Kennedy Airport in Queens. The following day, police executed a search warrant and found half a kilo of cocaine allegedly belonging to Mr. Vargas-Munoz. 

He has no prior criminal record, including in Puerto Rico, Mr. Nash conceded. However, because of his strong ties to the island and his lack of ties in Suffolk County, where he worked seasonally, the D.A.'s office asked for $1 million cash bail or a $2 million bond alternative, which was set by Justice Mazzei. Mr. Nash asked that a bail source hearing take place if Mr. Vargas-Munoz was able to make bail. 

Mr. Zornes reserved the right to make a bail application at a later date. Mr. Vargas-Munoz's next court appearance is scheduled for Sept. 26. 

Mr. Silva-Ruiz, known as Pito, was brought in for arraignment next, appearing much thinner than he had in a mug shot supplied by the D.A.'s office earlier this month. 

Mr. Nash described him as "a key component in the large narcotics distribution organization." He sold a half-ounce of cocaine to an undercover officer, caught on a digital recording, the assistant D.A. said. Mr. Silva-Ruiz pleaded not guilty to the indictment, in which he stands charged with six felonies, including conspiracy in the second degree.

He was picked up while attempting to board a plane at Kennedy Airport on Aug. 14 with $20,000 in cash. The assistant D.A. said his office corroborated that the money was to re-supply his organization. His role in the drug conspiracy was to arrange for the shipment of cocaine and oxycodone, according to the D.A.'s office. 

The 40-year-old made his first appearance in a courtroom since his arrest. After he was initially charged two weeks ago, he was taken to Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, where he remained for over a week. 

Christopher C. Brocato, a Central Islip attorney retained to represent Mr. Silva-Ruiz, said his client has "very serious health problems." He receives chemotherapy for leukemia and is on dialysis once a week. He told Justice Mazzei that his client is not a flight risk, has family in Suffolk County, and has worked in the area for 20 years. Even if he wanted to become a fugitive, his health conditions would preclude him from doing so, Mr. Brocato said while asking for more reasonable bail than the $750,000 cash or $1.5 million bond requested. 

The judge disagreed and set bail at the amount the D.A.'s office requested. 

The next defendant, William Crespo-Duran, who is 35, "identified himself as a pivotal member" of the organization, Mr. Nash said during his arraignment. When a search warrant was executed at a house on Gates Avenue in Montauk on Aug. 15, police found 200 grams of cocaine in a compartment in the floor under his bed, the assistant D.A. said. They also found $18,000 in cash and a scale among his personal possessions. 

Mr. Crespo-Duran, known as Flaco, is facing eight and a third to 25 years on the conspiracy charge alone, Mr. Nash said, although he is also charged with two other felonies and a misdemeanor. 

He has no prior record and strong ties to Puerto Rico, said Mr. Nash in requesting $750,000 cash or $1.5 million bond. Robert Coyle, his Sag Harbor attorney, did not make a bail request, but reserved the right to do so in the future. 

Antonio Ramirez-Gonzalez, 30, and Gilberto Quintana-Crespo, 32, were both charged solely with conspiracy in the second degree, and both pleaded not guilty. Neither has a criminal record. 

Mr. Ramirez-Gonzalez, known as Tete, "solidified himself to be a gatekeeper of sorts of ill-gotten proceeds" in the drug conspiracy, Mr. Nash said. When police searched his room on West Lake Drive, they found $30,000 in cash bundled. No narcotics were recovered, but Mr. Nash said that electronic surveillance through a pole camera showed "heavy foot traffic in and out of his room" in the course of the investigation. 

His bail was set at $750,000 cash or $1.5 million bond. 

Mr. Quintana-Crespo, known as Jimmy, was described as a "key member of the narcotics distribution organization" who directed customers to the person to see to buy narcotics, Mr. Nash said, adding that his cellphone was a target of the investigation. He also "secured packages" at the United States Post Office, which was used to ship cocaine and oxycodone into Montauk. 

He was the only defendant not represented by a privately retained attorney. Melissa Kanas of the Legal Aid Society called her client "indigent" and said he had "less exposure" than his co-defendants and no reason to flee. She said that while the assistant district attorney had said he is facing eight and third to 25 years on the high end, he could be looking at as little as one to three years on the low end. 

Even so, the judge set bail at $500,000 cash or $1 million bond, as requested. 

A sixth man, Eric Mendez, 38, will be arraigned at a later date, as he posted bail following his initial arrest. 

A seventh man, Angel DeJesus-Rodriguez, 30, of Montauk was indicted on four charges. There is a warrant out for his arrest. 

All of the defendants are due back in court on Sept. 26. Before any of them make bail, bail source hearings will be held.