Twenty homes, numerous detainees and 288 National Police officers are the cold numbers of the enormous force deployed since early yesterday morning in the Caño Roto area, the most degraded area of the Latina district. The same one where in November 2020 two hundred officers burst in to search for the apartments of narco Jiménez, one of the drug clans that have reigned in Cañada Real for five years, along with the Fernández, the Bruno, the Gordos… In short, in the end, everyone is linked to each other.
Other municipalities as well as the Toledan municipality of Casarrubios del Monte were points of action from the first light of day. After six thirty in the morning, a column of vehicles surrounded a chalet in the Calypo Fado urbanization, in the conflict-ridden area of Toledo, La Sagra. It was number 269 of Toledo Avenue, on the corner of Zaragoza Street.
For hours, uniformed and plainclothes officers, aided by trained dogs, remained in the area, cut off access and searched the house, which was visited by many friends and family of the residents.
Known as Villa Gemma, this property is dedicated to the Italian saint Gema Galgani. There is a large image of her on the side of this huge brick house, which served as a “leisure house” mainly on weekends and holidays. “Sporadic. They came and went, and did not attract attention by their way of life; on the contrary, because they are gypsies,” according to neighbors.
In a chalet in the same Castilla-La Mancha urbanization, on Zaragoza Street, in April, several people were arrested as alleged perpetrators of fraudulent crimes, especially scams. The operation was carried out by the UDEV Central in this case.
In the capital of Madrid, the journalists were greeted with insults from the relatives of the people interviewed, outraged by the presence of the cameras. Police from the Canine, Cavalry, Police Intervention (riot), Prevention and Reaction (UPR), Scientific Brigade, Operational Group of Technical Interventions (GOIT, one of its specialties is the detection of caches or hiding places), Udyco of Madrid and Latino Police Station.
Drug addict dead
The agents took possession of the interlocking area and about twenty houses that wind between numbers 3 and 16 of Cullera Street. Last Monday, a drug addict died who had gone to one of the drug depots to buy drugs and consume them. Police sources confirm that the searches were carried out both in these “businesses” (some also function as smoking rooms, daycare centers or drug hideouts); and the private homes of the people involved, where substances (mainly heroin, cocaine and marijuana), money and weapons were searched.
They also insist that, despite the death that occurred earlier this week, the investigation goes back a long time, which is why numerous surveillances, interviews with clients and other evidence were necessary until obtaining judicial authorization to enter. The main reason for this operation and the one four years ago, which resulted in 22 detainees from the Jiménez clan, is the weariness of the neighborhood. These are high-rise houses that belonged to the old Ivima of the Community of Madrid, but were later sold to individuals. Many of them were themselves residents presumed to be socially and economically vulnerable, which is why the apartments were assigned to them.
It is not for nothing that the city council of the capital is considering launching in a few months the video surveillance system announced in Cullera Street and its surroundings.
