The Rogoredo district, in the south-east of Milan, has been for some years one of the largest heroin and cocaine market places in Europe. During the spring and summer of 2019, the hustle and bustle around the train station and the nearby “boschetto” (the grove)–where, besides buying, people would use, and even camp–became so conspicuous that it began to attract considerable media attention. Things changed the following autumn, due to some massive law enforcement interventions. For a few months, trade went on in the other two dealing areas–on the dead track that runs alongside the grove, and under the ringroad bridges–but intermittently and with much lesser turnout. With the beginning of 2020 and the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the business shrank even further. The abandoned farmhouse on Via Orwell, where many used to sleep, is now empty. For the time being, Rogoredo's problems appear solved, while the predicament of drug-addicted people is still the same. They just moved elsewhere, where there is no news. Between one lockdown and another, however, sales have started again, and people are beginning to come back.
︎