Man charged as Mass and Cass crack dealer

A man with a criminal record that dates to the 1980s sold crack to at least two individuals at Atkinson and Southampton streets, then was arrested by police officers who tracked him on a bicycle to Nubian Square and a bus to Roxbury Crossing, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

Robert Smith, 56, had bail set at $2,501 at his arraignment in Roxbury Municipal Court on a charge of distribution of a Class B substance, second offense, but Judge David Breen also revoked his bail on an earlier Roxbury drug case, the DA's office reports.

According to the DA's office, BPD officer were conducting a drug investigation in the heart of Mass and Cass around 1 p.m. when they saw "what they believed to be several drug transactions between Smith and two individuals."

On his arrest after his peregrination to Roxbury Crossing, police found him packing two knives and $1,941 in cash, including a $1 Susan B. Anthony coin of the type drug users get through Boston's needle exchange program.

Smith faces a Jan. 12 probable-cause hearing. In addition to the bail, Breen ordered him to stay away from Mass and Cass.