The squatting macrobrothel of Delicias Street 133, in the Madrid neighborhood of Legazpi, could have its hours numbered. The company Desokupa, specialized in recovering usurped homes, changed yesterday morning the lock of the portal of the building where dozens of prostitutes work voluntarily without the harassment of pimps, and placed its security members at the door to perform access control 24 hours a day.

In the seven houses of the building, the prostitutes reside and develop their activity that generates a transit of dozens of people throughout the day. These women pay for each floor 2,000 euros a month to a man who rented the entire building last year, but who does not pay the rightful owner. The squatting tenant owes more than 100,000 euros. What were going to be tourist flats have been transformed into brothels that make the neighbors uncomfortable.

The main person responsible for this conflict rented the seven buildings of the block last year. It has been a total of eight months without paying the real owner of the homes, thus accumulating a monthly debt of 14,000 euros. At first, this person "rented for tourist rental", but ended up hosting women who are engaged in prostitution.

The squatter is charging for each floor where prostitution is practiced 2,000 euros per month of rent, as confirmed yesterday Daniel Esteve, owner of the company Desokupa and firm hired by the owner of the property to try to recover his property.

It is a situation of "documentary falsification" for which "the lawyers are going to accuse him of possible pimping, since he is profiting from a business of sexual exploitation," Esteve added. In this way, the person in charge of the squatting brothel obtains a profit per month of 14,000 euros, without facing any payment to the owner.

Apparently, the block of flats does not attract attention. But since noon these squatted homes are frequented mainly by South American clients, according to residents of the annex buildings. "You can hear and see everything from the window. We have small children, we are normal people and the only thing we want is to live peacefully, "said a woman about the panorama they suffer daily.

Workers of the Desokupa company at the door next to the National PoliceLUIS F. DURÁN

Nearby neighbors reiterated yesterday that they are "tired of suffering the consequences of an activity that takes place on a daily basis." "You can hear everything and you can see everything from our windows, since there are times when they do not even lower the blinds," insisted a woman who lives in an annex block. Already in 2019, the same company Desokupa evicted seven of the floors of the building. Now, almost four years later, history repeats itself, although for the moment the desokupación of the property did not occur and neither have the prostitutes left.

After the change of the lock of the portal of the building, and given the impossibility of working the telephones to open the door, it is expected that customers do not go to the block, according to Daniel Esteve. "They are free to leave and enter, but now customers are going to have problems accessing," said one of the members of Desokupa.

The National Police went yesterday about 10.45 am to the area after being warned by one of the tenants. The agents asked the owner of the building for the documentation and also spoke with the person in charge of Desokupa. They left the site after verifying that no illegality had been committed.

Between 15:00 p.m. and 16:00 p.m., 30 people went to the block yesterday without being able to access the interior. In the block there was a janitor who worked for the women and who also yesterday left the place and collected his belongings that he kept in an accountants' room.

This type of illegal business is not the first time that it alters the coexistence of the neighborhood. In fact, there is evidence that, on the same street, at number 127, "there is another macro brothel known for a long time as the babylon of sex," according to a neighbor. But unlike the present, the tenant does take care of the rent, so in theory no illegality is being committed. Today, the Legazpi area is still known as Madrid's prostitution triangle.

  • Prostitution
  • Squatters
  • National Police

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