Junta repossesses 17 unoccupied apartments used for growing marijuana

A search of the properties in the La Corta district revealed that some other families were growing the plants in their spare rooms. Some 4,000 plants have been seized and eight people arrested

Irene Quirante

Malaga

Tuesday, 29 March 2022, 12:34

The Junta de Andalucía has repossessed 17 social housing apartments in La Corta district of Malaga city because they were unoccupied and were only being used to grow marijuana. The police found more than 4,000 plants and have arrested eight people.

The police operation took place between 10 and 14 March and officers searched 27 properties in all. The regional government’s Housing and Rehabilitation Agency (AVRA) has repossessed those which were not being lived in.

They have now been sealed off so nobody can move back in while necessary works are carried out to the interior. When this has been done, the apartments will be assigned to families on the waiting list for protected housing.

Temporary accommodation

The Junta says that the searches by the police revealed that in six other properties marijuana was being grown in spare rooms, and some of the people living in those apartments were not there legally. For the moment they have not been evicted, as they were families with children and some of the women are pregnant. However, their cases have been passed to the social services authorities, to take the measures they consider appropriate with regard to the protection of the children and teenagers, as they were living alongside marijuana plantations.

The properties which have been repossessed are part of a complex of 220 apartments built in La Corta in 1993 under an agreement between the Junta de Andalucía and Malaga council. They were to be used as temporary accommodation for families who were living in properties which were very run-down or in ruins and were due to be demolished. They were handed over to AVRA to manage as social housing in 2007.

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