Resident of Mildred Hailey Apartments survived getting shot in the chest to keep selling fentanyl, feds allege

A man who allegedly used the apartment he shared with his girlfriend and their children in the Mildred Hailey Apartments in Jamaica Plain as his base for selling fentanyl was ordered held without bail pending a detention hearing in US District Court in Boston today.

Anthony Smallwood, 28, was charged with one count of distribution of, and possession with intent to distribute, more than 40 grams of fentanyl, the US Attorney's office in Boston reports.

According to an affidavit by an FBI agent on the case and Boston Police records, Smallwood was shot in the chest outside his apartment at 138 Heath St. around 11:45 p.m. on Sept. 3. Boston Police recovered nine shell casings on Heath Street. He also had his own gun, the feds say: Just this past Friday, the affidavit states, Smallwood walked out of the building and began "firing numerous shots into the air," then walked back into the building.

The FBI began investigating Smallwood in March, after an informant told agents he had learned of a fentanyl supplier "whose product had been related to the overdose deaths of several individuals in the Boston, Massachusetts metro area."

Agents decided to outfit the informant - who himself has a long criminal record - with money with which to buy fentanyl from Smallwood. According to the affidavit, the informer, under the eye of nearby agents, proceded to make several thousand dollars worth of fentanyl purchases from Smallwood, typically on Walden Street in the Mildred Hailey complex, to which Smallwood would walk from the Heath Street apartment.

Although he was an alleged professional at selling drugs, Smallwood made mistakes, according to the affidavit - in addition to the one of continuing in the business even after surviving chest wounds from gunfire.

On March 26, the affidavit says, Smallwood agreed to sell the informant 100 grams of fentanyl of high enough quality it could be diluted eight times and still be acceptable for street sales, for $6,000. At 1:18 p.m., agents watched Smallwood get into the informant's car on Walden Street, then leave shortly after with $6,000 in federal money and go back into 138 Heath.

Not long after, though, Smallwood texted the informant: He had made a mistake and given him somebody else's fentanyl package - containing drugs that were not as pure as Smallwood had promised the informant.

Smallwood offered to swap the drugs for the better stuff - and throw in some additional fentanyl and a sample of crack as recompense for the bother, according to the affidavit. But the next day, Smallwood told him his supply of new fentanyl from Lawrence had not yet come in.

Good to his word, though, Smallwood met with the informant on Walden Street the day after and gave him a new supply of fentanyl and two bags with crack rocks.

According to the informant, Smallwood always kept a close watch on the neighborhood for "weird" cars that might be occupied by cops, because he said he'd fly off at a moment's notice to the Dominican Republic. He'd already spent eight years in prison on a prior drug conviction and didn't want to do that again, he told the informant.

If convicted on the new federal charge, he faces between 5 and 40 years in federal prison, the US Attorney's office reports.

Innocent, etc.