Cocaine Delivered in Montauk by Ride Share Drivers, Prosecutors Say

Two Montauk men have been held without bail for the past week in the Suffolk County jail in Yaphank, accused of dealing cocaine in Montauk.

The two men were driving for Uber at the time and delivered the cocaine from their vehicles in and around local bars and restaurants in Montauk, according to the district attorney’s office. Their vehicles have been seized by the police.

Angel Garces Diaz, 38, and Anuedis Garces Medrano, 35, were both arrested the morning of October 5 during a law enforcement sweep in Montauk that involved both federal and local agencies. Two other individuals, Everado Hernandez, 45, and Ydares Baez Rivera, 26, also were arrested that morning on lesser charges and were released the following day after being arraigned in East Hampton.

Garces Diaz and Garces Medrano are not eligible to have bail set by a local judge, due to the serious nature of the charges, which include a possession charge of over 8 ounces of cocaine against Garces Diaz and over 4 ounces against Garces Medrano.

The two also are accused of selling over a half ounce of the drug each to undercover agents, considered a Class A felony, as are the possession charges they are facing.

“These are merely allegations at this point,” Robert Connelly, attorney for Garces Diaz, said after his client was arraigned. “We have yet to see the evidence.”

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said during a press conference on October 7 that the group was also distributing fentanyl. However, it appears from an examination of the accusatory documents on file at East Hampton Town Justice Court, all of the over one dozen alleged sales made to an undercover agent by the group exclusively involved cocaine.

According to the charges, numerous sales were made at 290 Old Montauk Highway, the address for Gurney’s Resort, with more sales taking place at 32 Star Island Road, the address for Gurney’s Star Island Resort and Marina. Gurney’s recently sold the marina portion of their business.

In addition, the charges indicate several sales took place at 697 Montauk Highway, the address for The Point Bar and Grill in downtown Montauk, as well as at the Montauk train station.

The sales the two rideshare drivers allegedly made to undercover agents started in April and went on through September, the D.A. said, although Tierney added the operation has been running since at least 2020.

Baez Rivera, who was charged with making one sale of cocaine at the Montauk train station, and Hernandez, who is accused of making one sale at 290 Old Montauk Highway — where, he told the court during his arraignment on Thursday, he works — and another sale at a motel on West Lake Drive, were released, under supervision by the Suffolk County Probation Department.

The press conference was held in Riverside at the D.A.’s office on the fifth floor of the Cromarty Courthouse. Displayed in front of the D.A. and the numerous officials from the Suffolk County Police Department, East Hampton Town Police, the district attorney’s East End Drug Task Force, and the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency, were several tables covered with the cocaine and fentanyl seized during the raid, along with $30,000 in confiscated cash, as well as an unloaded gun.

Patrick Waters, who handled the arraignments in East Hampton Town Justice Court for the district attorney’s office on Thursday, a day after the four were arrested, told the court that the investigation had been ongoing for many months. He said that police had obtained search warrants and searched four vehicles, five residences in Montauk, a storage space in Montauk and four cellphones.

According to the D.A., the cocaine was shipped to Montauk through the U.S. Postal Service, with the drugs concealed in nondescript containers.

Garces Diaz would be a familiar face to Montauk residents who use the Long Island Rail Road, standing outside his marked limo at the taxi stand, greeting arriving passengers. He is a longtime resident and has family in Montauk, where he has worked in the wholesale fish industry, as well as a cab driver.

Of the four defendants, Garces Diaz is the only one who made a statement to police. He denied the allegation that he would pick up cocaine shipped from the Dominican Republic through the mail.

However, he allegedly wrote in the one-page statement, which police say he signed, “I sold to customers in Montauk.” He also allegedly wrote that he stopped selling in the fall, despite having purchased a new quantity of cocaine in the Bronx. The police said they seized a container belonging to Garces Diaz holding over 8 ounces of the drug, leading to the most serious charge he is facing.

The statement says that he would purchase the cocaine in the Bronx, and sell it for $110 per gram.

Seated in the courtroom was Garces Diaz’s father, just weeks after that man attended the sentencing of Joseph Grippo — the killer of another of his sons. Grippo was sentenced to 20 years on September 7 for the 2019 killing of Robert Casado.

In the statement to police attributed to Garces Diaz on file with the court, he apologizes to his father and his family for his actions, saying that he wished he could be the one to tell them about what had happened.

His attorney waived his right to a speedy trial during his arraignment as well as his right to be released if not indicted within six days. This is often done to allow both sides to negotiate.

Garces Medrano’s attorney for his arraignment, Edward Burke Jr., followed suit.

Tierney said during the press conference that the case against the defendants is being presented to a grand jury.