Major Montauk Cocaine Bust

   Jorge Diaz hardly expected the reception he got when he arrived in Montauk Friday night.

   According to East Hampton Town police, Mr. Diaz traveled from New York City with a hot package in the trunk of his car - more than a kilo of cocaine, worth as much as $150,000 on the street. He was going to sell it, police said, and picked the town parking lot on South Euclid Street by the Montauk Post Office as the transfer point.

   Police - eight officers in all - were waiting, disguised or in hiding. So, too, it has been learned, was a police informant, who had set up the sale.

   Mr. Diaz, 36, who lives in Elmhurst, had been trafficking cocaine throughout the summer in Montauk and other parts of East Hampton Town, perhaps all over the East End, police said. A buy had been set up several times, but the target was never where he was supposed to be until Friday.

   As Mr. Diaz opened his trunk to get the goods and make the deal, police said, he was quickly surrounded.

   "We had information he might be armed," said Det. Lieut. Edward V. Ecker Jr., "but it went very smoothly. There was no resistance."

   Radio scanners foretold the coming sting to those who were listening carefully. "Unit in position" was overheard about an hour before.

"Proof Positive"

   All police would say about the circumstances surrounding the arrest was that "information received from several sources" targeted Mr. Diaz.

   According to court papers, the alleged supplier "sold two pounds, five ounces of cocaine, a little more than a kilo, which he gave to another in exchange for U.S. currency." Police would not comment on the particulars or the price, though a kilo of cocaine sells in the vicinity of $25,000, depending on the quality.

   Broken up into small quantities, its street value would be about six times as much, police said.

   Preliminary tests allegedly proved positive for cocaine. On Monday, detectives took the suspect package to the county police crime lab for further analysis. The Suffolk District Attorney is expected to present the evidence to a grand jury this week.

Could Get Life

   Mr. Diaz was arraigned before East Hampton Town Justice Catherine Cahill, who set bail at $25,000. He was remanded to the county jail in Riverhead Saturday in lieu of bail.

   Charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance first degree, a Class A felony, he could receive a sentence of life imprisonment if convicted of the crime.

   Town Police Chief Thomas Scott said the bust, though not the largest in the department's history, ranked near the top.

   "We've had kilos a few times before, but this is one of the biggest," said the Chief.

   In 1981, local police stopped a boat that was bringing marijuana from Colombia to a house on Milina Drive near Three Mile Harbor in East Hampton. The story made national news when 20 tons of marijuana were found. It proved to be the biggest seizure in the town's history.

   On June 5, 1986, five pounds of cocaine were seized on Main Street in Montauk after a sting similar to the one that took place last weekend.

   Chief Scott hinted that further busts may be forthcoming. "You'll be hearing from us," he said.