The Maya clan raids the squatted hotel in San Blas: "We're going to cut your throats."

The so-called San Blas squat , on Lola Flores Street, remains a hotbed of diverse crime. The latest incarceration has been perpetrated by eleven members of the Maya clan, some of whom are notorious for their criminal activity. Not surprisingly, they presented themselves as "relatives of Gordo Maya," referring to the criminal imprisoned for alleged attempted murder, robbery, and kidnapping. An aunt of this man was shot dead a year and a half ago outside her home in Puente de Vallecas. They are also related to the Silvas, one of the drug lords of the Cañada Real and the Nueva Numancia drug-apartment network.

The tug-of-war between squatter gangs at what was supposed to be a huge apartment hotel at number 7 Lola Flores, next to the A-2 highway in the Rejas neighborhood, led to these events, which occurred on June 25. The Municipal Police received a call, around ten to seven in the evening, from two men living illegally in one of the apartments. They reported that a mob of people were threatening to kill them and break down their door. They said they were carrying katanas and knives.

Numerous National and Municipal Police patrols were dispatched to the scene. Upon arriving at the compound, where several murders, kidnappings, and carbon monoxide deaths have occurred in just a few months, the officers saw a dozen people running, trying to evade justice. They got into two cars, a dark Seat and a Peugeot, to escape.

But they didn't have time. One of the vehicles was intercepted almost immediately, and officers established a security cordon around the perimeter. The police interviewed the driver of the car they had stopped. He stated: "Today, a friend's apartment was occupied, and we came to get it back."

During the search of the car, they found a very large kitchen knife next to the passenger seat and a pocket knife in the left rear seat. In the other vehicle, they found two more large knives, a hammer, a screwdriver, and a metal bar almost a meter long. The call for help wasn't far off the mark.

The investigators then went to speak with the complainants. The two men who were occupying the apartment, both Spanish, were scared stiff. "They were about to kill us," they stated. "They tried to break down the door, and we had to secure it to keep them out. We arrived at this apartment ten days ago after paying 2,000 euros to another man who gave us the keys. The Roma started banging on the door, threatening to cut our throats. We looked through the peephole and there were a lot of people with iron bars and knives."

A neighbor on the landing confirmed the violence with which the Mayas had arrived, all men and including fathers, sons, brothers, cousins... She explained that she had seen from her window "two dark cars arrive and ten Roma people get out with sticks and knives." "They entered the entrance and started banging on the neighbors' doors," she summarized.

With such a large police presence, they were able to arrest all the assailants, who were charged with illegal possession of weapons and serious threats. In addition, the Municipal Police issued reports for the weapons, so that this incident could also be recorded at the administrative level, in addition to the criminal level. The defendants range in age from 47 to 19. The two cars were taken to police headquarters.

Francisco Maya Silva, known as "Gordo Maya," is the most high-profile member of this extended family. A henchman of Samuelillo, he is on trial this July and, among other matters, is in jail for a shooting that left his victim with a spinal cord injury. His aunt Natalia was murdered in Vallecas during a drug dispute.

As for the so-called squatter hotel in San Blas, originally Aragon Suites (due to its proximity to the avenue of the same name), it has been occupied by a multitude of families for about three years. Up to 200 people live in this mammoth residential complex, abandoned after the developer suffered a financial crisis. One of Sandra Palo's killers and her gang held two men from the Gayarre clan hostage there; a Colombian man was murdered in a dispute with fellow Colombians from a rival soccer team; the Trinitarios stabbed a young man nearly to death who refused to pay a gang member, and a man was also stabbed to death over another unpaid debt.