Porto City Council seals school gates used for drug trafficking

This Friday, the Porto City Council sealed the gates of the Serco Preparatory School, a dilapidated building owned by the Ministry of Education and marked as a place for drug consumption and trafficking.

“The gates were sealed so that children passing by could not enter and be pricked by the countless syringes that are there. It can be seen that everything is littered with syringes and garbage. This is the limit of what we can do at this stage,” he said. Mayor of Porto Rui Moreira.

In an interview with the Lusa news agency, the mayor said he took the initiative to deliver “early in the morning” three municipal brigades – the inspection, civil protection and municipal police – to the destroyed school, and promised that he would now notify the Regional Directorate of Northern Education (DREN ) that owns the property.

“We cannot enter what does not belong to us. DREN must clean up and carry out the necessary work. If this does not happen, the Chamber will do this and send an invoice,” he stressed.

The Serco Preparatory School, located on Calle Doctor José Antonio Marquez and Calle Nossa Señora do Calvario in the parish of Campanhão, stopped accepting students a few years ago.

Without maintenance, the building is in a state of disrepair and began to be used as a place for the consumption and trafficking of drugs, which led to a citizen’s complaint to the Ministry of the Interior (MAI), which blamed the autarky of Porto, as it is today described by the journal Jornal de Notícias (JN).

In a conversation with Lusa, Rui Moreira recalled that the premises belonged to the Ministry of Education through DREN and deplored what he calls “handwashing”.

“It’s a disorganized and centralist state that when it has a problem, it says, ‘The mayor has to deal with it.’ It means washing your hands,” he said.

Rui Moreira expressed regret that the MAI “didn’t have the prudence to go and see who owns the school” before notifying the municipality and sending it a “more than legitimate complaint from a resident”, and recalled that the Serco School did not devolve to the Chamber in the process of decentralization of powers .

“It only takes one phone call to find out who owns the school, but that’s how they preferred it. We are used to them shifting responsibility to local authorities.

In a letter sent to the office of Minister José Luis Carneiro, the citizen asks for “urgent intervention” and speaks of “the unfortunate situation that is happening 24 hours a day in full view of the whole society.”

“[Nas ruínas da escola desenrola-se] drug use and trafficking, garbage accumulation, vandalism with demolition of gates, etc., endangering the safety and environment of a group of schools, a medical unit and a parish center [localizados nas imediações]”, reads the letter, which Lusa had access to today.

The citizen also notes that “the efforts of the security forces” in the area of ​​the school are “not enough”, and repeatedly calls for “urgent” measures.

The letter is dated August 11, and five days later the MAI sent a letter to the Chamber of Porto with the subject “request for intervention in the ruins of the former preparatory school of Cerco do Porto”.

In response, the Chamber of Porto recalled that the owner of the premises is the state, and recalled other similar cases.

“We continue to regret that the AIAI refers to this autarchy as a government matter, as happened recently in the case of the military barracks located on Rua do Ouro, and in other situations where the state relinquishes its responsibilities. “, the MAI said in a response from Thursday.

Asked if he had plans for the facility in case the Council adopted this legacy in the future, independent Rui Moreira admitted that he “didn’t immediately have in mind” the purpose of the school, but left the proposal to the government.

“Our auxiliary therapy room in Pasteleira is set up in a removable unit. There is an intention to create a new one, and this block will be mobile, but with SICAD support. [Serviço de Intervenção nos Comportamentos Aditivos e nas Dependências] that the block must be removable. If the Ministry of Health wants it to be there [no Cerco] to create a unit of this kind, knowing that there is a problem with drugs, we welcome this and we can contribute in any way we can,” Rui Moreira concluded.