“No, I don’t live here.” Answers a well-dressed man, with an elegant backpack on his back, as he leaves an old building on the steep Bajada del Barco street. It is located in the heart of the historic center of Toledo, 150 meters from the primate cathedral.
Neighbors say that the property, with a dilapidated façade and a very deteriorated entrance door, has been illegally occupied for years. They were also the ones who, fed up, alerted the National Police in October that something shady must be ‘cooking’ inside because the movement of people, including drug addicts, was continuous.
The police station’s Narcotics group confirmed the hunch: two drug apartments, on the first and second floors, and an illegal hair salon on the ground floor where drugs were also found. In total, 18 grams of cocaine hidden in bags of rice, which has a drying effect, and a backpack with more than a kilo of marijuana.
But the investigation was not easy. The building, full of filth, is located in an area where the street is so narrow that motor vehicles must pass very slowly to avoid rubbing against the walls. However, this adversity did not prevent investigators from proving that the people who entered were purchasing narcotic substances. Others were also going to get their hair cut, although from the street you cannot see the cabin, which is on the right as you enter the property.
Drugs and cash seized from detainees
The rickety main door still has the signs left by the agents of the Prevention and Reaction Unit (UPR) to enter. It was on Wednesday, November 13, although the National Police did not release it until this Friday, just a month after the last arrest.
In one fell swoop, three young men were arrested for drug trafficking and a fourth appeared two weeks later at the police station, where he was shackled. They are two Spaniards, a Venezuelan and a North African, aged between 20 and 25 years, who are free after passing the court on duty.
Likewise, they are provisionally accused of a crime of reception because the police, supported by a police dog and its handler from Madridthey seized more than fifty objects, probably stolen. The provenance of tools, jewelry, laptops and tablets is being investigated; bicycles, electric scooters, telephones or video game consoles.
Among the objects seized there are also three simulated pistols, two katanas, knives and razors, as well as a mask and a balaclava.
They also had two katanas, knives and razors, as well as a mask, a balaclava and three simulated guns. That’s why, Investigators are trying to find out if they were used in any criminal act. In addition, 2,500 euros in cash and 19 fake 50-euro bills, made with a crude reproduction.
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