A video recorded this weekend shows how two taxi drivers spray the interior of the vehicle of a professional colleague with fire extinguishers, whom they accuse of trying to defraud tourists, of trying to charge them one hundred euros for a ride that the taximeter would leave less than twenty.
The scene took place during the early hours of Saturday, in Barcelona, around the large esplanade of the Fòrum, at the exit of the massive electronic music festival Brunch Electronik. The tourists in question, a Brazilian couple, only arrive at their hotel as soon as possible.
"Unfortunately, these bad practices are becoming more common," says Alberto Álvarez, alias Tito, from Élite Taxi, from the main association of taxi drivers in the metropolitan area. These scammers are organized, they look for their clients around the clubs, at the exit of the concerts…”.
“And the politicians are not doing anything,” Álvarez continues, “we demand that they take strong measures, that they immobilize the scammers' vehicles and fine them 4,000 euros. Otherwise these people will continue scamming tourists and dirtying the image of the Barcelona taxi”.
In addition, Álvarez announces that Élite Taxi will deploy hundreds of patrols around the busiest nightlife spots this September, more than a hundred patrols of taxi drivers in charge of informing users and detecting possible deception.
“Their work will be merely informative -adds the representative of the taxi drivers of the metropolitan area-, everyone will be well identified. The problem is that the discomfort in the profession is very great. People are fed up with four hustlers playing with their way of life. If the administrations do not take measures, the people will, and we will not be able to control them”
