Police Charge Eastie Man With Drug Posession

Officers arrested an East Boston man and charged him with drug possession last week after he allegedly stored a white substance in a replica of a cigarette.

According to a Dec. 15 police report, members of the Boston Police Youth Violence Strike Force arrested Robert W. Yandle of 50 Monmouth Street in East Boston after officers observed a passenger in his car attempt to buy drugs at the Bunker Hill Housing Development.

Officers watched the man run into the development and emerge a few minutes later, the report said. They then followed the car, driven by Yandle, and stopped it to investigate.

The officers saw drug paraphernalia, including needle caps and cotton balls, in the car before asking the men if they had syringes on them. Both said they did, the report said.

Upon asking Yandle to step out of the car, the report said, an officer spotted what looked like a cigarette lying on the floor. Further inspection revealed that the object was a replica of a cigarette, hollowed out and containing an off-white powder that police believed to be cocaine.

As a result, Yandle was charged with possession of a class B substance, but this was not his first encounter with police in Charlestown.

In August, members of the Boston Police drug control unit said they watched Yandle engage in two possible drug deals before they stopped and arrested him.

After the arrest, officers took him to the district A-1 police station and searched him. According to the report, an officer "observed a plastic bag between [Yandle's] butt cheeks." Yandle retrieved the bag, which contained ten packets of a substance believed to be heroin, and handed it to the officer conducting the search.

At that time, officers charged him with distribution of a class A substance.