- Panama, the King of San Blas
- The Seven Lives of Juli, the nerve of Las Matas
- The ground floor of Argüelles, cocktail bars and the ring of the urban tribes
- The Struggle to Survive in Carabanchel Prison
- El Francés and the real Panda del Moco, the posh bad guys who frightened Madrid
- Lag in the Rock-Wave: Amphetamines and 'pogos' in the sanctuary of La Movida
Benja is an unusual person. He is a former thug from the neighborhood of Vicálvaro who dedicated himself fully to crime, to finally embrace religion and become an evangelical pastor. To complete his complete transformation, he has written and published an exciting book: The Spiral of Evil (2023).
How did the idea for the book come about? Because a lot of people encouraged me to write it. I didn't do it because I never liked to completely bare my heart. In the end, in the pandemic, with COVID, I asked, 'Lord, what can I do? How do I make the most of my time?' I picked up and started writing. It took me nine days to write the bulk of the book. Almost without eating, without sleeping. What was your childhood like to end up in the criminal world? You don't get out of bed and say, 'I'm going to be a gangster.' That's why I titled the book The Spiral of Evil. Because it's a spiral that takes you along. In the end, the entrance is further away and the exit is never seen, the intermediate point becomes eternal. I was born in Germany. When I was three years old, my parents took me to a boarding school in Madrid. And a few months after arriving, I began to be sexually abused by two nuns. When my parents came back, when I was almost nine years old, my father beat me up every day. And when I was 12 years old, I was raped by a guy at a campsite. That creates a bitterness, a hatred of God, of everything. I started going to the gym and made a costume. When I was 13 years old, I started going with kids who came from broken families. Guys with no limits or schedules. I used to hang out with rapper Chirie Vegas and other friends. When did you make the leap to professional crime? At one point I met Roberto [not his real name] because of the dogs of prey. One day he proposed that I beat someone up in exchange for money. He wanted to test me. Roberto's was seen by gypsies, Colombians, Bulgarians, Russians... with cochazos. They made deals with him. One day, one of them failed to make a move and Roberto told me: 'Beni, you're coming'. He added: 'The plumbers have tools, the masons too... What tool do you have to come?' And he gave me a .38 revolver. 'When we're done with the job, you pay me.' We brought a lot of weapons from Portugal. They came from Brazil.
Benjamín, in a street in Vicálvaro.SERGIO ENRIQUEZ-NISTAL
Who are the nastiest guys you've ever met? I've met all the bad guys in Spain and the baddest, the coldest, were Roberto and Panama [from the San Blas area]. Roberto, for example, taught us how to kill with our hands, he taught us how to torture. He was a visionary, a master of evil, it's another level. We're not talking about traffickers, we're talking about dangerous, homicidal people. In fact, I liked to torture. Of course, we've had shootings. But, as a rule, this was not the case. Because, in addition, Roberto performed the functions of the capo by mediating between other groups. If, for example, there was a move between the Iranians and the Miamis, they would take Roberto to mediate. He was never a Miamian, but he knew Quique, alias El Caimán, who was the creator of Miami. Also to all those who started that group. Quique was Spanish. Died. Well, they killed him. At one point, he started extorting money from people in the neighborhood... Yes, I started fining the whole neighborhood. I was never a trafficker, but since we robbed traffickers, we got drugs. Also, in the collections they paid you 50% of what you recovered. Many times that 50% was X kilos of drugs. Then we cut that drug and sold it. In the neighborhood, I used to get people to sell. There were friends who paid me so much money a week to sell. And others I forced to sell my wares. And the one who didn't sell my material, well, he paid me a tax. I charged people depending on what they sold. On a weekly basis, I could get five to ten thousand euros. I had the instinct of a hunter, because we hunted people. What did I do with so much money? People get confused and talk about easy money. It's not easy money, it's quick money. And fast money goes fast. He left in cars, women, hotels, drugs. You'd go to Marbella and in two weeks you'd spend 60,000 bucks. Do you feel guilty that you did those things? Every word that comes out of my mouth comes out of shame and regret. I speak freely because I am no longer that person. There are a lot of people I've apologized to and they've told me that's fine, and there are others who haven't. Today some are more powerful. I used to go with hitmen, with guns, and no one touched me. But now a lot of those people are strong. Some even spoke to me in a threatening tone, but I'm not afraid. That's in God's hand. When the gentleman calls me, I'll leave after a gunshot, cancer or an accident, I don't care. I live trusting in God, yes, but I don't trust in the devil. I'm a cautious person. When you hunt someone, you do it because of the routines they have. I'm a person who, although I have my routines, I try... I know the cars near my house, I try not to always follow the same route, etc.