Neighbors of a building on Muntaner Street at the height of Mallorca Street report that the coming and going of drugged people through their staircase is making their lives miserable. Some are already planning to move, others don’t even want to go on vacation. This community has already installed cameras in some common areas, hired a security guard who patrols the landings at dawn, filed a bunch of complaints and reports with the Mossos d’Esquadra and the Barcelona City Council… The RAC1 radio station echoed the laments of these neighbors yesterday.
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This lurid story dates back to early last year, after the owner of one of the apartments in this building made his former tenants leave, renovated it, and moved in there. “He is a businessman with investments in the city, from a good family, from the upper area – some neighbors of the building say – … but in recent months he deteriorated a lot, every day he looked more gaunt!”
The community has already hired a security guard who patrols the landings at dawn
And soon, these neighbors continue, many very down-and-out people with obviously serious drug problems began to frequent this apartment. Some barely spend a while in the apartment in question and leave weaving through the landings and stairs, so many that sometimes some don’t even manage to reach the street and remain prostrated in the lobby. Some neighbors photographed them incredulously. Other visitors do stay in the apartment for several days. Fights and arguments are common. “In the end, after many arguments, the owner of the apartment left, and an Algerian and an Italian settled there permanently.”
Calls to 112 became more insistent, as did visits from the Mossos and the Urban Guard. “The Mossos were able to enter the apartment on one occasion – these neighbors add – but they did not find any drug trafficking paraphernalia, so they could do nothing.” Police sources acknowledged yesterday to La Vanguardia that it is a difficult situation to manage. The owner of the apartment recently died, after leaving and leaving his apartment in the hands of these people well known, moreover, to the police.
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And on top of that, so far, these same interlocutors add, no one has claimed this property. Thus this apartment became a meeting point for very problematic people. Investigators have no evidence that it is a drug sales point, that the trafficking that may occur here goes beyond the usual dealings of these circles. Everything points to each one bringing their own and sharing it. The neighbors still do not know that the owner of the apartment in question died, and they are still trying to contact his relatives to see if they can do something about it.
“It’s just that these people who come and go drugged, if you tell them they can’t bring bicycles in the elevator, they respond very violently with insults and threats.” “They smashed the door of the parking lot bathroom to do laundry and fill their jugs, broke the glass of the entrance door, even dislodged the door so it couldn’t be closed!” “And, moreover, in recent months there have been thefts in two apartments in the block. We are very scared. We fear for our safety.” “It’s just that these people who are constantly coming and going are very scary.” “Call the Mossos, you’ll see… they tell us laughing.”
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Under these circumstances, the eviction of this property seems complicated. Since yesterday, patrols of the Urban Guard and the Mossos in the district, in uniform and plainclothes, will try to harass as much as possible these people who come and go, especially during the early hours of the morning, when their parties get lively. Meanwhile, the neighbors of this building on Muntaner Street will continue paying nearly 3,000 euros a month for a security guard to patrol their landings at dawn.
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