Cocaine in the Trunk

For the second time in recent weeks, a routine traffic stop on Montauk's Main Street has resulted in the arrest of the driver on cocaine trafficking charges.

East Hampton Town police said they stopped Alimdzkan Angeles-Abreu's Honda Acura on the Plaza Friday at about 9 p.m. for having a burnt-out license plate light. Mr. Angeles-Abreu did not have a valid driver's license and was charged as an unlicensed driver.

The officer who made the stop then asked if he could search the vehicle, and was given permission to do so. The driver "was acting nervous, making nervous movements," Detective Sgt. Greg Schaefer explained on Saturday. Nothing was found inside the car, but when the officer searched the trunk he found cocaine, the detective said, along with packaging material.

Mr. Angeles-Abreu, 37, was charged with two Class B felonies, possessing cocaine with intent to sell and having over a half-ounce of the narcotic, as well as possession of drug paraphernalia, a misdemeanor. At his arraignment Saturday morning, he told East Hampton Town Justice Lisa R. Rana that he has lived with his girlfriend in Montauk for the past two years.

The district attorney's office asked that bail be set at $30,000. The defendant, who is originally from the Dominican Republic, has had prior brushes with the law, and a warrant for his arrest, issued in Elizabeth, N.J., is current.

Justice Rana set bail at $25,000, which was not posted, and Mr. Angeles-Abreu was taken to the county jail in Riverside. His next court date is Thursday.

A Sept. 9 traffic stop of a 2004 Trailblazer, not far from Friday night's incident, resulted in three arrests on drug-trafficking charges. Elvin Silva-Ruiz, the driver, and his passengers, Eddie Matos-Ramos, and Jonathan Hernandez-Ruiz, all face the same two felony charges as Mr. Angeles-Abreu. They are currently free, and will return to Justice Court unless they are indicted, when their cases would be heard instead in Suffolk County criminal court.