Hundreds of police backed by a helicopter raided dozens of apartments in central Barcelona used for selling and consuming heroin and other drugs, making dozens of arrests. A court in the northeastern Spanish city authorised the search of 40 flats in the central Gotic and Raval neighbourhoods. Residents of the two central neighbourhoods which are popular with tourists have long complained that empty flats, many of which are owned by banks and investment funds following Spain's property crash a decade ago, had been taken over by drug traffickers as places where people come to buy and use drugs.