The Municipal Police of Madrid have seized 6.5 tons of food in poor condition or in poor hygienic conditions in several locations in the Usera district, including a Chinese restaurant and a bar that sold roast chickens.
Within the framework of the so-called Marmita operation, municipal agents have carried out five searches on different days last October - between the 4th and the 24th -, a case that is now being investigated by a court in Madrid, police sources have informed Efe.
Some of those involved have received an administrative sanction, while others could have incurred various crimes. The cessation of the activity of two of the establishments has also been decreed.
Following various complaints from the residents of Usera, municipal agents carried out the first intervention on October 4 in an establishment that sold roast chickens and which, despite having precautionary measures decreeing its closure, continued to operate normally.
Some of the sanitary deficiencies in said premises include mold on the walls, the humid spaces in which they kept food, and the garbage containers in which they stored the sauces that accompanied the chickens.
Other interventions were carried out in different floors of Usera where several people made Asian food, especially dumplings, which they then sold to both individuals and other businesses.
Of these dumplings, which were cooked by people who did not comply with hygienic measures, 200,000 units were seized, the equivalent of 4,000 kilograms. In addition, throughout the operation, various quantities of sugar, flour or frozen foods, among others, were seized.
The agents also entered a Chinese restaurant that, despite being closed, stored food in unsanitary conditions surrounded by dirt, which the agents suspect were transferred to other establishments with which they were connected by the back of the building.
