Mass and Cass: Another suspected drug trafficker arrested, held without bail

A suspected Mass and Cass fentanyl and crack trafficker is being held without bail after police say they found more than 50 plastic bags full of the drugs in his backpack.

Keon Leary, 43, of Dorchester, was arrested Friday and charged Monday in municipal court in Roxbury with trafficking cocaine and fentanyl; carrying a loaded firearm without a license, third offense; illegal possession of ammunition and other drug distribution and gun charges.

“This is exactly the type of individual who is both capitalizing on and perpetuating the situation at Mass and Cass and who must be prosecuted for the public safety threat he is,” said Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden in a statement.

Leary is among the 31 people arrested on drug trafficking charges in the troubled area of the open-air drug market surrounding the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard since the beginning of June and into Friday, according to Sgt. Det. John Boyle, the chief Boston Police Department spokesman. There have also been 49 summonses for charges in the area in the same period.

Judge Debra DelVecchio found Leary dangerous in Monday’s hearing, which allows him to be held for up to 120 days. Following that period, bail is set at $25,000 and Leary would have to wear a GPS tracker and stay away from Mass and Cass.

Leary was arrested after he allegedly sold drugs to an undercover police officer on Friday.

A search of Leary’s backpack allegedly turned up a .22 Taurus pistol loaded with nine rounds, 20 plastic bags containing fentanyl, more than 30 plastic bags containing crack cocaine, 41 Gabapentin pills, one plastic bag of cannabis and $8,994 in cash.

Fentanyl and crack cocaine are known dangers, but that third drug, Gabapentin, is less well known as an abused drug.

That’s because, unlike the other two, Gabapentin is not a federally controlled substance. The pill is a non-opioid treatment for seizures in people who have epilepsy as well as other nerve disorders or pain, according to the National Institutes of Health.

But as the country is experiencing a crackdown on the over-prescription of opioid medications, the drug “has been deemed an opportunistic drug of abuse,” according to a 2018 paper in the journal Risk Management and Healthcare Policy.

On the streets the pills are known as “johnnies” or “gabbies,” reports The Pew Charitable Trusts, and are said to enhance the effects of opioid drugs but can make it hard to breath and reduce opioid tolerance levels.

The dangerous recreational use has led seven states to list it as a controlled substance in the last five years, reports Pharmacy Today, and another 12 states — including Massachusetts — to place the drug in their prescription drug monitoring programs.