mystery: solved.

Some friends recently relocated to my less-than-desirable neighborhood. On their street, there is woman who lives in a first floor apartment always, always at her window. Typically there are people outside of said window and there is an exchange of money.

Some theories included drug dealing or money laundering. Both of these are fully plausible in my neck of the woods, but we've solved the mystery. 

Friends are visiting from Australia/England and were insistent upon purchasing some "holiday fags". (I was surprised by what that meant as well.) They went to a store around the corner and asked, but it was apparently too late to buy them at the time. Strange, because I didn't think there were rules in Spain. Anyways, the always helpful proprietor told them to leave the store and buy them from the woman in the window. 

So it was just cigarettes. Kind of a let down.


EDIT:
I forced my friend to read this, against his will. He lives on the street with the old lady and was the first to point her presence out to me. While agreeing that perhaps she does sell cigs as a side hustle, there have also been envelopes passed through her window, along with sketchy looks back and forth.

Unfortunately, I'm no Sherlock Holmes, so this case remains open. But we'll label it as, "at LEAST Marlboro Lights and probably other more interesting things." Cool.