On September 19, residents of the Sureres de Mataró housing estate (Maresme) attended the rescue of a man kidnapped in a house occupied by a criminal gang. The captive spent several days in a tower on Carrer Fluvià and was able to escape to explain what had happened, palpable proof that organized mafias set up their operational residences in uninhabited houses in the urbanisations.
As a result of the investigation, the Mossos, with the help of the neighbors, have been able to verify that Les Sureres, an area remote from the urban core of Mataró, has become a center where organized gangs arrive who occupy homes, often owned by banks and financial institutions, and try to go unnoticed. An attempt that in the eyes of the neighbors is not successful, since "it is not normal for high-end cars and individuals who do not speak Spanish accompanied by armed bodyguards to enter and leave an occupied house".
According to investigative sources, the kidnapped 53-year-old man was part of a rival clan that held him by force to collect a debt related to drug trafficking. Investigators speculate that it could be a revenge between Albanian and Romanian mafias. The impunity that allows them to move through the urbanizations and the laxity of the legislation to prevent occupations make Mataró an ideal place to set up their operations center.
After these events, the residents of Les Sureres mobilized to demand more vigilance and security. They point to houses that have been occupied in a coordinated manner by criminal groups, and farms, warehouses and industrial shops intended for the cultivation of marijuana, and also drug distribution warehouses. "Mataró is an important point in drug trafficking on a European scale" say the residents of Les Sureres.
The same mafias, when they stop using the house they have occupied, try to get an economic income by selling the keys to other criminal groups to settle in the occupied house. "They sell the keys" they confirm. The situation in the housing estates is of maximum tension, as described by the neighbors with examples such as that of a resident whose home "was raided by a foreign group with balaclava and weapons". They had the wrong house and were looking for another with a marijuana crop.
The situation in the housing estates and specifically in Les Sureres is unsustainable. "We can't leave cars on the street because we run the risk of them being stolen." Mafia-related robbers often operate there, who do not hesitate to steal what they can from homes, such as copper heating pipes. But another fact that worries them "is that there are armed people stationed at the entrances".
Despite the fact that the residents of Les Sureres assure to show full support for the police work, they understand that the situation is beyond them. Proof of this is the occupation of the same house where the individual was kidnapped at the end of June, a few days later. Despite raising the alarm, Mossos agents went there and certified "that it was a consummated occupation" that did not allow immediate eviction.
Another type of crime that is also making a fortune in the Mataró and Maresme housing estates, after a massive occupation of homes, is blackmailing the owners. "A neighbor who comes at weekends was forced to pay 3,000 euros to have her vacated" a clear extortion.
Because of all this, the residents of Les Sureres have decided to mobilize and take action by publicly pressuring the political class, the police forces and the judiciary to urge them to impose measures to "act forcefully and quickly" in the occupations ”, and at the same time instruct actions to “eradicate the mafias that are based in Mataró”.
The capital of the Maresme, despite attempts to penalize illegal occupations, remains one of the havens for specialists in violations of residential address. According to police data, the capital of Maresme has 760 occupied homes for every 100,000 inhabitants, 69% more than the average for Catalonia
