Boston cops busted up what a prosecutor called an “indoor Mass and Cass” in the South End.

“Isn’t this the second event I’ve had in two months with this gentleman’s property?” Boston Municipal Court Judge Richard Sinnott asked partway through the arraignment of five people charged with various drug crimes Thursday.

Defense attorneys confirmed that it was.

During the arraignment, prosecutor Eden Tobin said people have called the home the “indoor Mass and Cass,” referring to the notorious area surrounding the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard, a former tent city that served as the center of Massachusetts’ opioid epidemic and where open-air drug use still permeates even after the city took the tents down in November 2023.

She said neighbors regularly lodge complaints about the location and it is the second time in recent months it had been searched by police — and the second time some of the occupants had been lugged into court on drug charges because of it.

Boston Police officers with the drug control and human trafficking units executed a search warrant of 231 West Newton St., Unit 3, on Wednesday morning and, according to the police report, uncovered a den of heavy drug use.

The report notes six people scattered across what online real estate records record as a 639-square foot one-bedroom condo and needles and drugs strewn across the floor and surfaces. By the end of it, five were charged and were arraigned the next morning at Boston Municipal Court.

“Due to safety concerns of hypodermic needles in the open, officers placed everyone in handcuffs/flex cuffs,” the report noted. The police note that they also called in the city Inspectional Services Department “due to the apartment being in complete disarray and unkept to basic standards of living conditions.”

Police say they found a baggy of crystal meth, loose pieces of crack cocaine, multiple loaded needles of fentanyl, packets of fentanyl, a single loose pill of the anticonvulsant drug gabapentin, and bottles of antipsychotic and hypertension- and ADHD-treating prescription pills made out for a non-resident of the house.

Gabapentin is used to treat seizures, but the British Journal of General Practice says that people may use it recreationally for the effects of “euphoria, improved sociability, a marijuana-like ‘high’, relaxation, and sense of calm.”

The specific antipsychotic drug found is Quetiapine — one bottle of 30 50mg pills and a second of 30 200mg pills — which the Western Journal of Emergency Medicine says can be used recreationally to reduce anxiety and achieve euphoria or even hypnosis. The hypertension drug was Clonidine, which was found in a bottle of 60 0.1mg pills.

Police charged homeowner Michael Collins, 66, with possession of crystal meth and possession of the Quetiapine and Clonidine. His attorney, Nathalie O’Callaghan, said Collins is “simply underwater financially … he has not been able to keep up with the cost of living, the cost of that home.” She said he has been doing charity work with the homeless and is now realizing that “he let it get beyond his control.” Collins was employed as an auditor for the state court system for 30-some years and is now retired, she said.

Collins’ husband Schanwat Wilailak, 37 — who appeared in court on his birthday — was charged with possession of the Gabapentin pill as well as the Quetiapine and Clonidine.

Juan Pola, 54, of Cambridge, was charged with possession of fentanyl, which police note they found in a loaded needle near him, and possession with intent to distribute fentanyl after police say they found a significant quantity of the drug in packets beneath the couch cushion he was sitting on.

Sydney Currier, 37, the sole woman of the group, was sitting next to Pola when officers walked in and was also charged with possession of fentanyl due to police saying she had a loaded fentanyl needle in front of her.

Angel Lara-Baez, whose attorney said is homeless and was in the apartment to seek shelter from the very cold temperature, was charged with possession of crack cocaine.

Finally, a sixth occupant of the apartment at the time of the search warrant, Warren Kenyon, 30, did not appear in BMC but Quincy District Court had a default warrant for him on charges of resisting arrest and shoplifting.

Judge Sinnott set bail at $1,000 for each of the defendants except for Pola, the one charged with intent to distribute fentanyl, whose bail was set at $5,000. The defendants are not to go to the problem house address again or have any contact with one another, except for the married couple of Collins and Wilailak.

Michael Collins, seen at far right, is the owner of 231 West Newton Street, Unit 3, which was raided by Boston Police Wednesday morning. He and four others, including Sydney Currier, center, face drug charges. Here they are at their arraignment at Boston Municipal Court’s Central Division on Thursday. (David L Ryan/Pool photo)

From left, Angel Baez; Schanwat Wilailak, who lives in the home; and Juan Pola appear for their arraignment in Boston Municipal Court’s Central Division Thursday morning after a Boston Police Department raid on 231 West Newton St., Unit 3, on Wednesday morning. (David L Ryan/Pool photo)

Neighbors have complained about Unit 3 of 231 W. Newton St. in the South End, seen here on Thursday, for some time, prosecutors say. (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald)