Assistant District Attorney Bob Digiantomaso argued Mr. Figueroa was a danger to the community because of the "toxic combination of drugs and guns" that marked his arrest.

Judge Bernadette Sabra agreed, holding the defendant without bail. The decision marks a new threshold — one that will likely be challenged by defense lawyers — in which anyone charged with possessing a gun and drugs can now be denied bail.

Until now, the dangerousness statute has been wielded against defendants charged with carrying an illegal firearm in public, possessing an illegal high-capacity gun in their home or possessing a firearm in their home while trafficking narcotics.

The dangerousness statute has long applied to defendants who are found to pose a danger to individuals, such as parties in a domestic violence case.

District Attorney C. Samuel Sutter said he was pleased with Judge Sabra's ruling that Mr. Figueroa posed a danger to the community.

"Judge Sabra found that Mr. Figueroa is dangerous and she did so either because she found probable cause that he was carrying those illegal firearms outside his apartment or because she found that the combination of drug dealing and possession of an illegal firearm warrants a dangerousness finding," Mr. Sutter said.

"She may have been persuaded by both arguments. Either way, this is a major victory for our office and I applaud her for her decision."

Mr. Sutter has been using the state's dangerousness statute for every illegal firearm-related charge since his tenure began in January 2007.

His interpretation has already withstood legal challenges from trial lawyers arguing he has gone beyond the statute's legal intent. On June 28, a Supreme Judicial Court judge upheld a previous Bristol County Superior Court ruling that Mr. Sutter correctly used the statute to detain a man arrested in Fall River on weapons charges.

An appeal is pending before the entire court challenging the statute's constitutionality.

Defense lawyer Joseph E. Mullin disagrees with Mr. Sutter's new argument that the dangerousness statute applies to any defendant charged with firearm and drug charges.

"Laying something out in blanket terms per se without looking at the facts of the individual case is a bad idea," Mr. Mullin said.

"I'm sure when you assess the facts, you will find cases that the statute does not fit. It's not fair to put a blanket assertion like that out there. You dont want to abuse the statute and trivialize it. You want judges to take it seriously."

 Standard Times