Two-month-old baby rescued in Madrid: cocaine positive, parents arrested

Two-month-old baby rescued from a filthy apartment in Madrid: cocaine positive and parents arrested

On Sunday morning, officers from Spain's National Police and Madrid's Municipal Police entered an apartment on Calle Castilla in the Tetuán district. What they found was hard to imagine in a first-world city: a baby of barely two months, dehydrated, covered in faeces and urine, on the verge of falling off a bed. The apartment was a rubbish dump, according to the official report, with traces of alcohol and drug use. The parents, a Colombian man and a Bolivian woman, were arrested on charges of child abuse, injury and disobedience.

The most chilling detail came afterwards: the baby tested positive for cocaine. The question is unavoidable: was the drug administered directly to him, or was it environmental contamination? The investigation is ongoing, but for now the parents are in prison and the child has been placed in the care of child protection services.

The public reaction and the deeper debate

The case has triggered visceral reactions on social media and forums. Some comments point directly at the parents' nationality, in a tone bordering on xenophobia. Others focus on the parents' negligence and the possible failure of the social services system, which failed to detect the situation in time. Meanwhile, in the Tetuán neighbourhood, the news has caused unease among residents, who complain that such situations keep recurring in overcrowded apartments with drug problems.

The most unsettling fact: according to the police, the parents have prior records for disobedience. And the baby, at just two months old, already has a record of cocaine in his system. The medical community warns of serious long-term neurological effects for the child.