On Sunday morning in the Red Light District, two apparently disconnected extreme episodes seem to have a closer relationship as the police investigation progresses. Both situations, occurred 100 meters away and with minutes of difference, involve two groups that the residents of El Mondongo know very well: the sex workers and the minors that swarm through the streets in search of the remains that leave the night and the drug trafficker. It is not a novelty that the supply of drugs amply surpassed the sexual one in that sector of the urban area of La Plata and the recurrent complaint from the fronters has to do with this aspect. “Prostitution was always there, for more than 50 years at least, and we never had problems. Everything changed when the drug arrived and brought crime to the shoulder ”, they are in charge of highlighting from the Neighborhood Assembly.
After a hectic start to the year, which ultimately continued a reality with which the neighborhood has lived together for decades and which is striving to eradicate, the mandatory quarantine calmed the waters. At least for a time, because after the first two weeks the residents returned to claim the presence of trans in the area covered by Avenue 1, from 60 to 67; lane 2, from 63 to 70; diagonal 73, from 4 to Plaza Matheu; and 115, from 63 to 68.
According to the complainants, the most chosen corners during this period of social isolation are those from 4 to 64 to 65, and -a little further from the “heart” of the area- 5 and 64.
PINEAPPLES, STONES AND FIRE
Between 2 and 3 in the morning yesterday, a discussion in an unfriendly tone woke up those who live in the blocks of 4 between diagonal 73 and 64, and 64 between 4 and 3. In the corner of 4 and 64, a group of people quarreled for reasons that researchers estimate to be “territory and drug possession.”
Those who had the courage to look out the window could observe the evolution of the verbal exchange to the barter of stones, bottles and blows of the fist. The chaos lasted only a few minutes but was intense.
When the tile rain stopped, those involved left the scene. The sequence was filmed by the residents who watched with resignation a drama that repeats itself “day by day”. Several videos began to circulate through the WhatsApp groups. Some were immediately deleted. “The one who recorded it sent it and erased it, because there is fear. Many are terrified of what is happening to us, ”neighborhood leaders explained to this newspaper. “Many operations are being carried out with the issue of micro-trafficking, the truth is that they are working well, but now the violence of two antagonistic gangs has joined and there are fights almost every day,” he added.
When the corner of the wild brawl was empty, witnesses believed the worst was over. They were wrong.
At 3.20, the La Plata fire station received an alert for a fire in a house between 5 and 63. When the truck bomb arrived at the scene, he ran into three minors who had managed to escape from hell, fortunately unharmed. The boys “did not want to identify themselves or declare,” said a police spokesman.
The rescuers were also unlucky. An hour later, with the flames smothered, “we wanted to do the expertise, they did not let us pass. From what we could see, the house is made up of two bedrooms and a bathroom ”, they detailed.
The officers of the ninth police station interviewed some witnesses and began to tie up dots. Along these lines, a police source revealed that “we carried out ex officio actions, because none of the alleged victims wanted to provide testimony. The fact is being investigated and we believe that it was motivated by a brawl that happened minutes before ”, in relation to the fight with the transvestites.
In the neighborhood they maintain that the minors “are squatters who took that house” and that they usually fight with the trans people in the area. As, now, “there are fewer people on the street and less supply of drugs,” reflected a neighbor, “they go out desperate to look. And many times they take away the wallets where they carry the doses. ”
Sometimes, to avoid being delayed, “they go out with a shopping bag to look for the drug that the transvestites leave hidden in gas meters,” they asserted. They also reported that “they throw stones at the patrollers and shout ‘I’m going to kill you.’ The Police stop them, but they cannot do anything, it is unfortunate that they must work like this, without being able to do anything at all. ”
However, the source consulted in the assembly indicated that there they consider that the police work of the last time “was not so bad”. However, they demand a “political decision, a firm order and a systematic plan that comes from above” to end the violence. They also value the dialogue with the current commissioner of the section, Cristian Di Giácomo, with whom they held two meetings.
Saturday procedures were carried out at night in the periphery of the Red Zone, “by 1 from 72 to 57, which resulted in the detection of two people with prohibited substances. In addition, in the early hours of yesterday, there was a persecution that began in El Mondongo and ended at 23 and 72, with two other detainees, “the police source detailed. Last week there were other operations in corners such as 3 and 69, and 4 and 65, where there were seizures of drugs, cell phones and money, it was indicated.
Arrests
According to a police survey, since May 20, more than 25 people have been detained in the Red Zone for selling drugs under the cover of a sexual offer. Those operations lasted until early Sunday morning, when there were two arrests.-
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