A fake paralytic and a man nailed to a corner: this is how drugs are sold on one of Barcelona's most dangerous streets

BarcelonaEvery drug den is different, but some techniques are common. Like the one where a man whistles from the street and, as if by magic, a doorway opens. Immediately afterward, another man emerges, swaying and visibly high, and urinates on the first wall he finds. This scene takes place on a Friday afternoon on Sant Pere Mitjà Street, in Barcelona's Ciutat Vella district. Currently, according to residents, it's one of the city's most critical drug trafficking hotspots.

"We've gotten used to it. It's like we're neighbors. You practically feel like saying hello," a neighbor remarks ironically about the people who frequent this drug-selling spot. There are three within a few meters. "When one closes, they go to another," another neighbor laments. However, they've noticed an increase lately. The three drug dens are just steps apart and surround a narrow, labyrinthine street, with the courtyard of a school, the Cervantes School, very close by.

In fact, according to several sources consulted by ARA, the corner where it begins in the school courtyard is one of the most problematic spots. There's a false corner—because one building juts out more than the other—where there's an electrical box. A middle-aged man usually hangs out here all day. Discreetly, he passes hashish to various buyers. He does it on the street, in broad daylight, but it's not so easy to catch him: he hides the drugs in various places along the street and almost never carries them on him. He conceals them in the doors of closed businesses or in holes in the walls. "When I raise the shutter, I never know what I'll find," explains a shopkeeper.

Arrest for dealing crack

This Thursday, further evidence emerged of the high level of activity on this street. Neighbors reported seeing a man in a wheelchair conducting a drug deal. He is also known in the neighborhood, with a dozen prior convictions for various offenses, including robbery with violence and intimidation, theft, assaulting law enforcement officers, and drug trafficking. It is suspected that this man in the wheelchair collaborates with the drug dealer who always stands by the electrical box. Officers from the Guardia Urbana (Barcelona's municipal police) noticed the exchange and approached the man in the wheelchair. Surprisingly, seeing what was coming, he stood up. He also resisted arrest. But, ultimately, he was detained. He was selling small doses of crack cocaine. It is not uncommon for drug dealers to use elements ofprops —in this case, the wheelchair— to try to go unnoticed or, at least, avoid being linked to crime. Not long ago, a man was carrying kilos and kilos of cocaine in the electric batteries of a wheelchair. He was caught at El Prat airport.

However, arrests like the one this Thursday in Sant Pere Mitjà demonstrate that the police are aware of the situation on this street, but also that it is not always easy to obtain court orders to enter drug dens, which regularly change locations.

Crime on the rise

Residents explain that this problem is not new, that drug dens have existed in this part of the city for some time, but that there are more of them lately. As several police sources comment, the drug dens are no longer so concentrated in the Raval neighborhood of Barcelona. Faced with police pressure, they have been dispersing and have now been detected, for example, in the Eixample district. Crimes against public health in the city continue to rise. In 2025 they increased by 26.8%, and they were already on the rise in 2024. However, the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan Police) and the Guardia Urbana (Barcelona's Municipal Police) attribute this to an increase in police activity, which has also led to an increase in crime statistics. During 2025, 165 drug sales points have been deactivated.

Residents of Sant Pere Mitjà Street also link the rise in drug use to the gentrification of the neighborhood. They criticize the increasing number of tourist apartments and the loss of long-established businesses. A shopkeeper who closed her store after the pandemic explains: this has led to more empty apartments and storefronts, spaces that drug dealers often exploit to set up shop and open drug dens. At five o'clock on Friday afternoon, two visibly drugged men emerge from an apartment and stand facing the street, staring for several minutes as it rains. At the same time, children are leaving school. Fortunately, they are leaving on the adjacent street.