Wave of arrests for drug trafficking in Raval seen from a terrace

BarcelonaThe contact is quick and you have to be attentive not to miss anything. A young man approaches another and they exchange a few words. Sitting on a terrace to disguise themselves and at a prudent distance, it is impossible to know what they are saying, but it can be interpreted. One gives some coins to the other. At that moment, the seller takes something out of his pocket and hands over, one by one, small things, as if they were coins, into the buyer's hands. The customer has already paid and after this exchange they separate with the satisfaction of having done it quickly, without anyone having spotted them. But some plainclothes police officers appear and stop them. The buyer has several Lyrica pills in his pocket. The seller ends up arrested for a crime against public health.

As the ARA has explained several times, it is common to see these exchanges of pills in the street in the Raval neighborhood of Barcelona. Lyrica is a medication that is mainly indicated to alleviate nerve pain and some epileptic seizures, as well as generalized anxiety disorder. Among the drugs trafficked on a small scale in the Raval neighborhood is also Rivotril, a benzodiazepine that is also mainly used for certain types of epilepsy and seizures. Both require a medical prescription.

According to police sources, until now the authorities could not arrest those responsible for these exchanges following various internal directives. Basically, until now the public prosecutor's office opted to file cases of pill exchanges. This has now changed. Following an agreement between the Prosecutor's Office, the Mossos d'Esquadra, and the Guàrdia Urbana, this trafficking is considered a crime against public health and the first arrests are already occurring.

These medications have a very specific audience, according to police and trafficker sources, and are predominantly young people who are mainly dedicated to stealing. Why? They are drugs that tend to disinhibit, to raise adrenaline, and they are taken to lose fear before committing a violent robbery on the street. Before the new criteria, exchanges were made in plain sight and traffickers did not even hide. They even sometimes did it in front of the police, with a cocky attitude, evidencing their sense of impunity. With the internal change in the police, both the Mossos d'Esquadra and the Guàrdia Urbana, there is a wave of arrests for drug trafficking of medications.

L'ARA has been able to witness three arrests simply by sitting one afternoon on a terrace in the Rambla del Raval. All three take place one hour apart from each other and a few meters apart. They are always dealers who wait standing on the corners, passing the time, until the client arrives and with admirable speed they make the exchange. In conversation with L'ARA, one of these clients, just after being identified by the police, complains that he takes Lyrica for a leg pain. In fact, he walks with crutches and has an open and poorly cared for wound on the lower part of his leg. Asked if he has this medication prescribed, he simply says it is for his leg. He is young —not yet 30 years old— and barely speaks Spanish. He does not carry an ID card and identifies himself with a CatSalut card.

How much did this man pay for the pills? 10 euros. A little over two euros per pill. It's the standard price if you're a regular customer. Sometimes, they can charge those who aren't known up to five euros per tablet. Now the police are also starting to investigate where these pills come from and if there are allies of the dealers who go with a prescription to the pharmacy and then resell them.

And a rip-off

El Raval is movement. Dozens of people constantly go up and down this neighborhood in the center of Barcelona. In the midst of the movement, drug exchanges can be seen: a young man approaches another, places something in his hand, and shortly after the buyer sits down and rolls a cigarette. You only need to pass by to detect that it is hashish. At the same corner, a new exchange of pills takes place, which ends, again, with the arrest of the seller.

But El Raval has so much movement that seconds later, while they are arresting the dealer, another young man snatches a gold necklace from a tourist waiting for a taxi. A pursuit begins with several officers running through El Raval until they intercept the thief. They manage to stop him, arrest him, and the jewel returns to the tourist's hands.