El Campell: the former mansion of drug dealer Franky seeks now new lives for social use

Two kilometres down the road from Pedreguer (Alicante), among orange, tangerine, and olive trees, stands El Campell, a four-story mansion on a walled land. More than 18 years ago, the villa belonged to a drug dealer known as Franky, and after his arrest and conviction, it was transferred to the Fund for Assets Seized for Illicit Drug Trafficking of the National Drug Plan. Since then, up to seven social organisations have used part of its facilities as offices and for occasional activities. This usage is deemed insufficient by the town council and the associations. “The town hall went into debt but it was worth it,” says the town mayor, Sergi Ferrús. Thus, they are looking for solutions: either El Campell strengthens its role as a stage for more anti-drug projects, or it will have to adjust its social function if it does not want to end up in a public auction.

Esther Escrivá, coordinator of the AMADEM Mental Health Association, explains to Maldita.es that they set up their office on the first floor of El Campell in 2008. It is the only property from the Fund for Assets Seized for Illicit Drug Trafficking in Spain that changed hands for a social use rather than being sold or auctioned, a 400-square-metre villa valued in three million euros, featuring several parking spots, a pool, a picnic area, an outdoor jacuzzi, two barbecues, multiple wells for collecting water, and a garden.

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El Campell: from drug dealer's home to social use

Until his arrest in August 2006, when he was leaving the house, drug trafficker Francisco Javier Martínez Sanmillán, known as Franky, enjoyed using the property with his family for brief stays. At the time, there was a detention order for him to serve a sentence for two crimes against public health. He had been on the run for over a decade.

The Justice system indicates that Franky —known for changing his fingerprints from his hands to his feet— had not worked or received legal income since 1994, instead spending that time “managing the profits from his previous drug trafficking activities,” with which he purchased the El Campell villa in Pedreguer.

A local resident who was granted anonymity explained to Maldita.es that Franky wanted to build a “traditional house,” stone made, and spent “three or four years” building it. This neighbour, who works nearby as well, claims that Franky only spent short periods at the villa and rarely went downtown: “He came here and said he was a pilot; the bricklayer living in front of the mansion joked every time a plane passed, saying, ‘Look, he’s watching us,’” he recalls.

However, not all corners of the villa have been used in its new life as a social space. In one room on the ground floor of the mansion, which AMADEM now uses as storage, there is a window that does not lead to the outside. When it is opened, it reveals a room covered in stone and wood that extends down to the basement. It has small windows that have to be opened remotely and a large door that leads outside but has no access from the room. Neighbours call it “the bunker,” and it contains a large round table surrounded by armchairs, and a piece of furniture to its right. It remains as Franky left it in 2006 when he was arrested, but AMADEM does not have a key to enter.

Another notable room in El Campell is located on the rooftop. Behind a door, there is a foyer with several small doors leading to a sloped area that requires crawling through brick passageways. This space includes a bathroom, “as if they could hide here,” explains Escrivá, adding that they believe this secluded place may have been used to hide drugs, though she notes that nothing has ever been found.

Another notable room in El Campell is located on the rooftop. Behind a door, there is a foyer with several small doors leading to a sloped area that requires crawling through brick passageways. This space includes a bathroom, “as if they could hide here,” explains Escrivá, adding that they believe this secluded place may have been used to hide drugs, though she notes that nothing has ever been found.

El Campell is the only property from the Fund transferred for social use

Since the establishment of the Fund for Assets Seized for Illicit Drug Trafficking under the National Drug Plan (PNSD) in 2003, El Campell is the only property transferred to entities for social purposes. Assets seized in Spain during drug trafficking operations are placed under judicial custody until a final judgement is rendered. If this trial ends with a conviction, the asset can be seized, meaning it becomes state property.

The Fund is responsible for managing already confiscated assets, which can involve sale, auction, or cession. However, cession is considered an “exceptional” measure under the law that regulates the Fund. Data provided to Maldita.es via a FOIA request asking for the destination and use of non-integrated or unsold assets by the Fund indicate that between 2018 and 2024 only 3.35% of the assets are transferred, mostly to state security forces.

According to the PNSD, since 2003, three properties have not been auctioned and have been managed for other purposes. Besides El Campell, there is the Pazo Baión in Vilanova de Arousa (Galicia), which was rented to several wineries while the judicial situation of its owner, Laureano Oubiña, was solved. Later, the property was auctioned in 2008 to a winery, which remains the owner of the property, promising to hire people with drug dependencies undergoing reintegration. The third is a property in the Galician town of Vilagarcía de Arousa. This last one, explains the government delegate for the PNSD, Joan R. Villalbí, was handed over to the town hall through an appraisal using a 1997 regulation.

From calçotadas to archaeologists' accommodation: a long road to justify its social use

After Franky's arrest, the Pedreguer Town Hall requested the transfer of the villa to the Valencian regional Government. The court overseeing the case approved the “provisional” transfer for the creation of a centre for people with disabilities and mental health issues. In 2008, AMADEM moved into El Campell and has remained there ever since. Following Franky’s conviction, the land came under the jurisdiction of the Fund. In 2017, the town council signed an agreement with the National Drug Plan to cede El Campell for 15 years, renewable every five years for a total of fifty years.

Residents of Pedreguer praise AMADEM for its social work and community support. For example, they recall the charity calçotada (a typical catalan onion barbecue) held annually at the villa for the past ten years, which has gathered up to 550 people in the former drug dealer's mansion. Its coordinator appreciates the reception the event receives year after year but regrets the limited use of the villa: “Initially, we moved all activities here, and gradually we asked for facilities from the Dénia Town Hall (the largest town in the area) because more people were coming; we have been growing, and people couldn’t reach us,” explains Escrivá.

The town's mayor, who joined the council five years after the estate was seized, recalls the process, which he describes as “arduous”: “We had and still have to justify its social use.” The aforementioned law states that these activities must be linked to the prevention of substance abuse, assistance for drug dependents, and social and labour reintegration.

Since the seizure of the land, at least seven organisations have used El Campell, but AMADEM has been there from the beginning. They started by addressing the most severe mental disorders, such as bipolar disorder or psychosis, and over the years, they incorporated individuals suffering from phobias, depression, or anxiety, who often coexist with substance addiction, referred to as Dual Pathology. The association employs eleven people, “all professionals,” emphasises Mercedes, member of the association’s board and whose husband is also a user of AMADEM’s services: “He loves coming [to El Campell]; for him and the other users, it feels like home. They experience total freedom, but transportation is a handicap. If we had a van, we could do more activities here because there is space, but we don’t have the budget for an adapted vehicle or a dedicated driver.”

Although AMADEM has its office in Franky’s former estate, officially, to the Fund, El Campell has been the administrative headquarters of the UPCCA, the Community Prevention Unit for Addictive Behaviours in the Marina Alta area, since 2016. Its head, Liliana Cardona, explains that although they are “on paper” there, the UPCCA services are decentralised: “We do not hold workshops in the property because the geographical dispersion is large and communications are poor; these are small mountain towns.” This body is responsible for notifying the town hall and the PNSD annually about the property’s use.

However, more associations have used the villa. Escrivá explains that the orchard on the premises is used by Adima, a local NGO in Pedreguer assisting children and adolescents. In the first summers after the seizure, the LUDAI association from Dénia used the pool and adjacent space for exercises with children with developmental difficulties until they needed a location to establish an early intervention centre., El Campell did not meet the requirements for that. The association ‘Condenados al Bordillo’ (Condemned to the Curb), which assists individuals with functional diversity, has also used the property. The villa has not only served associations; it also accommodated a group of archaeologists from the Provincial Archaeological Museum of Alicante for a decade, during which they conducted excavations at a local site and held a summer soccer camp for children organised by Valencia’s soccer team captain José Luis Gayá, who was born in Pedreguer. The Pre-Labor Adaptation Workshop for Social Reintegration (TAPIS) from Dénia has also used the facilities temporarily over the past 15 years.

“What does this have to do with rehabilitation or drug prevention? Well, for example, one of the clauses in the agreement stated that the excavation team would dedicate a day to engage with AMADEM users to teach them about excavations,” explains the mayor of Pedreguer. A similar arrangement occurred with the summer camp where, for one day, young people engaged with AMADEM users.

Pedreguer seeks to adapt activities at El Campell

Sergi Ferrús tells Maldita.es that the town hall allocated 80,000 euros to adapt and renovate the house, which suffered thefts and some damage after Franky's arrest. They had to ask for a bank loan for this: “The town hall went into debt, but it was worth it.”

Furthermore, the mayor of Pedreguer emphasises the money they have invested since 2008 for its maintenance. “This is a problem we have faced for years; the total maintenance cost is about 15,000 or 16,000 euros annually, which adds up to approximately 200,000 to 250,000 spent on maintenance. This does not include water, electricity, nor property tax, which should be paid by the state… since it is state property, of course, but they don’t pay for that either,” he explains to Maldita.es in his office.

This maintenance cost poses a challenge for the municipal corporation: “It’s great; the civil society of the region benefits, all the associations that use it are regional, but the other municipalities tend to ignore it and don’t collaborate much. It’s very difficult for Pedreguer to manage these expenses.” In this regard, Ferrús regrets that they have had to look for “subterfuges to use it for other purposes” and proposes moving there the headquarters of the MASSMA, the Social Services Consortium of Marina Alta, to enhance its use and thus achieve the involvement of the remaining 21 municipalities, “because, otherwise, it is unfeasible.” This usage would still be shared with AMADEM, which indicates they would like to use it more “if it weren’t for transportation,” Esther and Mercedes recall.

However, the transfer of the MASSMA requires the Fund's authorization, as the purposes of confiscated assets must be dedicated to “substance abuse prevention programs, assistance for drug dependents, and social and labour reintegration.”

Sergi Ferrús has also considered invoking one of the clauses in the agreement that allows convening a commission between the PNSD and the Pedreguer Town Hall to solve issues at El Campell: “Since we haven’t had conflicts, we haven’t met, but it might be convenient to gather with the Ministry to give it another approach.”

What if the Fund does not authorise another use? Ferrús hopes they can establish the MASSMA headquarters in El Campell; otherwise, it would return to the Asset Recovery Fund, which “will likely auction it because that’s what they do.” It is through this auction and sale of assets that the Fund has raised nearly 95 million euros in ten years, which is then dedicated to “substance abuse prevention programs, assistance for drug dependents, and social and labour reintegration.”

From crime to community: the social reuse of confiscated assets in Italy, Spain and Romania

This report is part of a cross-border investigation carried out by Lavialibera (Italy), Scena9 (Romania) y Maldita.es (Spain). This project explores the social reuse of confiscated assets in the three countries highlighting its impact, challenges and possible solutions.

We have analyzed, in four features, the shared problem of the lack of solutions to throw back to society the confiscated assets related to drug trafficking in Spain, Romania and Italy. We also and we talk Hemos analizado en profundidad, en cuatro reportajes, el problema compartido de la falta de soluciones para revertir a la sociedad los bienes decomisados al narcotráfico en España, Italia y Rumanía. We also focus on the situation in Spain and speak to associations that manage drug trafficking-assets and their impact on local communities.

This investigation has been developed with the support of Journalismfund Europe.