Tel Aviv drug den closed but the prostitutes, addicts and dealers remain

The building on Finn Street began as an apartment house rented out to women working in prostitution but gradually became a drug trafficking center, where dealers, addicts, pimps and prostitutes lived together, under the nose of the police, the municipality and the Ministry of Social Affairs. The arrangement was convenient for everyone: the municipality, because the addicts and prostitutes did not leave the site, did not interfere with the urban routine, ostensibly did not disrupt the public order and simply rotted away together. For the police it meant a concentrated source of intelligence was all located in a single building, easy to locate when needed, creating a sense that crime did not extend beyond the premises.