Evicted one of the largest occupied buildings in the center of Madrid: "It was the great hostel of crime"

Mohammed moves away from what has been his home for the past three months.

He drags a carry-on suitcase whose wheels stopped turning a long time ago and he is not sure where to direct his steps, but surely his compatriots will lend him a hand, he says.

Born in Guinea Conakry 20 years ago, he arrived in Spain through the border with Morocco three years ago.

At the beginning of the summer he moved from Salamanca to Madrid, where they assured him that he could arrange his papers and he settled in La Quimera, one of the largest occupied buildings in the center of Madrid, in the Lavapiés neighborhood.

This Wednesday, when the sun had not yet risen, they have evicted him along with some 70 people from the building, whose occupation was a source of constant complaints from neighborhood associations.

La Chimera is a privately owned building.

According to police sources, it belongs to two brothers, a man and a woman, who are very old.

The woman died a few months ago and the now sole owner filed the complaint, an essential step to start the legal process that has led to the eviction.

The car arrived Tuesday afternoon and the device was set up in a matter of hours.

For years, the building was occupied by neighborhood groups that organized social and cultural activities, something that was well received by the residents.

From one of its balconies the proclamation of the neighborhood festivities was given.

But after the pandemic the tables turned and it became occupied by other types of inhabitants.

“For six months we had detected that traffickers lived in it.

It was a great

(hostel) of delinquency”, has pointed out the commissioner of the Central district, Alberto Carba.

A boy on his way to school crosses Nelson Mandela Square in Lavapiés during the eviction of La Quimera. DAVID EXPÓSITO

This turn of tables had aroused angry neighborhood complaints.

During a meeting of the superior chief of Police, Manuel Soto, and the Government delegate, Mercedes González, with the neighborhood associations a few months ago, the situation of the Chimera occupied a large percentage of the time.

"This situation had produced a great degradation in the area and we could not allow it to affect citizen security," Carba indicated.

“The complaints from neighbors and merchants were constant and a permanent police presence was required in the square”, added the commissioner of the Municipal Police, Francisco Caletrio.

200 agents of the National Police and 80 of the municipal police have participated in the operation.

The eviction has taken place without incident or resistance from the occupants.

Inside the building traces of heroin and methamphetamine consumption have been found and the agents have arrested six people, three for reasons of immigration and the other three accused of other crimes that the police have not specified.

The occupants were divided into the different rooms, in poor health conditions and with a lot of mattresses thrown on the floor.

The owner of the building will hire private security from now on, as detailed by Commissioner Carba.

At night, it is common to see drug retail in this square.

Some habitual drug addicts roam the area for hours and sometimes fights broke out, as the neighbors have repeatedly denounced and he has had the opportunity to see this newspaper for several days.

Since before summer, a car of the Municipal Police remained stationary in the square and the patrols of the National Police crossed it every hour.

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