The year 2025 ends and, beyond the kidnappings, murders and deadly fires, there is a silent scourge that spreads to Madrid’s neighborhoods (some more than others) as marginal towns disappear and that is where … of the main workhorses of the Higher Headquarters of Madrid. These are apartments of drug traffickers, houses colonized by drug addicts and large families of drug addicts displaced from these traditional neighborhoods, where they enjoy greater impunity when arrested by security forces. It is impossible to know a precise number of how many there are; but the number of those dismantled during the twelve months of the year gives an idea of the scale of the problem.
According to data to which ABC had access, 113 distribution points for “artisanal” narcotics have been dismantled by the national police since January. In 2024, there were 104 registrations, and the year before, 97 registrations. During the first three quarters of 2025 (January to September), drug trafficking increased by almost 16% in Madrid. Here is some data that allows us to contextualize a situation that is worsening.
These 113 operations until December give a rate of 10 per month, knowing that work in this area is almost daily. In addition, 271 people were arrested in connection with them. Already in its 2018 report, the Madrid Public Prosecutor’s Office warned that it was a “difficult problem to investigate, because drug traffickers know the area in which they operate well, they are very coordinated among themselves, they easily detect the police forces and the narcotic substance is usually consumed in smoking rooms inside the apartments.” Furthermore, until a sufficiently large burden of proof is assembled, they are considered domiciles and therefore benefit from the inviolability granted by the Constitution.
The data to which this newspaper had access also allows us to locate the peak of police work in the Puente de Vallecas neighborhood, which, although it is one of the most populated in the capital, is far ahead of the others. These are 22 narco apartments that broke out (20% of the total, one in five), out of the sixty that the neighborhood had this year, according to information from investigators and reports from neighbors, tired of having to endure the daily inconvenience they cause.
The second most “worked” area is not a district of the city of Madrid, but Parla, with 12 narco apartments; They are followed by the Center (10); Usera-Villaverde, which is the same police district, with 9; like San Blas-Vicálvaro, where drug trafficking predominates around Paraíso Park, in the Simancas area; Then, with number 8, there is the Latina district, with particular emphasis on Calle Cullera and its surroundings, where the City Hall has recently installed a video surveillance system. They did this precisely because of the narco-apartments, many of which are managed by the Jiménez clan, one of the oldest in La Cañada Real, which in many cases uses officially protected housing.
In the next step below is Leganés (5 records); and then they find, with 4, the Cañada Real itself; Alcobendas-San Sebastian de los Reyes; Carabanchel and Fuenlabrada. In Villa de Vallecas, 3 were dismantled (not counting those in the aforementioned locality of Valdemingómez), and as many others in the areas of the Hortaleza-Barajas National Police stations; Fuencarral-El Pardo and Getafe. Finally, there are Ciudad Lineal, Alcorcón and Torrejón de Ardoz, with two each; and the rest of the police region is completed by Retiro, Aranjuez, Alcalá de Henares and Móstoles. The missing police stations did not register any: Moncloa-Aravaca, Tetuán, Moratalaz, Pozuelo de Alarcón, Coslada-San Fernando, Chamberí, Salamanca, Chamartín and Arganzuela.
30% more crimes
Regarding the toll of violent deaths, the 2025 cycle ends with 30, according to official data from the Ministry of the Interior (January-September) and the count made by ABC (rest of the year), although as the weeks pass and events are updated, it is likely that more will be added. This figure, in the Spanish and European context, is very low. That said, there are seven more than in 2024. But it must be taken into account that last year’s 23 constitute the smallest number of murders and intentional homicides recorded in Madrid’s historic series. The current population of the region is 7 million. Of the 30 crimes, seven took place within the limits of the Civil Guard (around one and a half million inhabitants) and the other 23 took place within the territory of the National Police. The province of Seville alone, where two million inhabitants live, recorded 25 intentional homicides that same year.
The Madrid region has officially suffered four sexist killings and one by Latino gangs this year ending
Among these cold figures are the four assassinations due to gender-based violence and the only one duly considered to be the result of the clash between Latin gangs, which occurred in Getafe. Beyond homicide deaths, other very serious events occurred in 2025, such as the death of two Alcorcón firefighters while putting out a fire in a garage, on April 2, and the kidnapping of the criminal known as Niño Juan in front of dozens of people, on the evening of October 31 in Carabanchel.
The kidnapping of Niño Juan, the death of two firefighters from Alcorcón and the fire in Hileras marked the black chronicle
Another fatal case was the collapse on Calle de las Hileras, in a building under construction, which buried and instantly killed four workers on October 7.
About The Author
