Inside a drug den in Barcelona's Raval after a record-time eviction 

An older Italian man on a long holiday in Barcelona, with a valid ID and paying three months' rent upfront.

When Rebecca Day, co-founder of Ruby Realties, received the booking for one of their short-term rental flats in the Raval neighborhood of Barcelona, nothing seemed suspicious.

But two days later, neighbors informed the estate agent that the flat had been taken over by drug dealers, and there was no sign of the Italian man. Then began a 38-day nightmare for the residents.

"It was unlivable," Day tells Catalan News during her first visit to the flat after the Catalan police, Mossos d'Esquadra, evicted the occupants.

She explains that the people running the drug den spent nights screaming in the hallway, with doorbells ringing every 15 minutes from clients. They damaged the building and even threatened the neighbors. 

"Most of the tenants moved out, while those who owned their flats had no other option," Day explains. 

Fortunately, the ordeal ended relatively quickly. According to Day, this was a "record-time eviction." 

"They removed them within 38 days. The fastest I've ever seen before was eight months. But the community really pulled together here to stay on top of things, working with the police and the town hall," she explains. 

After the eviction, Day invited Catalan News to visit the flat on the first day she was able to enter. 

The studio apartment was completely destroyed and looked nothing like the pictures in the advertisement. 

Most of the furniture was gone, leaving only a mattress on the floor, a few chairs and a sofa around a table for drug consumption. 

All the counters and surfaces were covered with multiple round black burn marks, and several basic pipes for drug use were found inside. 

"The damages far exceed the money that this drug dealer paid us. We have to empty the whole flat, there's nothing we can salvage. We'll have to replace the kitchen counter, repaint, and basically renovate it all over again," Day explains. 

After the renovation, the owners will likely sell the apartment, as they've been deeply put off by the experience, the estate agent says. 

Furthermore, it's difficult to get insurance coverage, as the situation doesn't technically qualify as squatting because the drug dealers had legally paid rent for three months. 

According to Rebecca, this represents a new trend for drug dens: renting flats legally through temporary contracts, often with fake identities, and paying upfront.  

"It gives them legal rights as renters and makes it much harder to get them out," she explains. 

But while the nightmare for this particular building has ended, a new one has already begun in the building across the street. 

According to Day and the neighbors, the flat opposite has already been occupied by the same mafia, using the same method.

Fewer drug dens, neighbors still worried 

Drug dens in Barcelona have significantly decreased in recent years. According to the city council, there are currently fewer than ten active drug dens in the city. In 2017, that number was around one hundred. 

Deputy mayor Albert Batlle defends the work done in the fight against drug dens this year, noting that 71 such points were dismantled in the first half of the year, an average of two drug dens per week. 

Nearly a hundred individuals connected to these drug operations have been arrested, and overall drug-related arrests have increased by 24%. 

Despite this progress, neighbors say there has been an uptick in drug dens over the past three months and are calling for more social measures, arguing that police pressure is already very high. 

Ángel Cordero, a member of the Raval Neighbors Network, told Catalan News that the city council has "given the neighborhood up for lost" and is demanding more social initiatives to address the problem. 

Cordero argues that housing is closely linked to the issue, as gentrification and real estate speculation are driving long-term residents out of the area, leaving flats available for mafias to rent "at high prices" to run drug operations.

"If we fill the neighborhood with working-class people, this phenomenon will be reduced," he says. "When a family moves into a flat, the drug den disappears."