He guarded an armored car, stole it, lived like a millionaire and ended up as a porn actor

A folk hero is not always someone who does what is politically correct, they are often the opposite side of the establishment. Dionisio Rodriguez Martin became an iconic character for Spanish society when, in 1989, robbed an armored truck loaded with 300 million pesetas ($2 million) without firing a shot.

Dioni, as his friends called himself, was a security guard and after a problem with his boss he began planning the coup. When he got the money, he fled Brazil where he lived the life of a Rockstar for nearly two months until the police tracked him down. Today the whereabouts of part of the loot remains a mystery, of which only 175 million pesetas were recovered.

In 1995 Dioni regained his freedom and in the following years he became a sort of idol of the people. As far as Joachim Sabina dedicated a song to him “With a pair”, on the album White Lies, 1990). In those years he becomes a recurring character in television broadcasts, he also participates in adult cinema. A whole character.

From vigilante to thief

Dionisio Rodríguez Martín was born on October 31, 1949 in Madrid, Spain. He studied at the Santa Ana and San Rafael schools in Madrid and began his working life at the age of 14. He started working at the Candi SA surveillance company, eventually obtaining the position of bodyguard.

In early 1989, the man continued his job at the security firm, but his boss demoted him from a bodyguard to a security guard. This angered Dionysius and he set out to plan the greatest coup in Spanish history. “I was offended because I went from dressing in a suit and tie and earning 1,500 euros to dressing up as a ‘Roman’ and receiving 450 euros,” Dioni confessed a few years later in a television interview with Being in chain.

On July 28, 1989, Dioni disappeared from the map. He took advantage of the two companions’ absence to get behind the wheel of an armored van and took him to his car, where he deposited all the money he had inside and left in a hurry.

During his escape, Dioni assured in countless interviews that he gave some of the money (which he says he has never heard of) to three friends and subsequently traveled to Brazil, where he lived the life of a true millionaire. Cocktails of alcohol, drugs and women were recurring in the hotel where he stayed for almost two months. Until September 19, 1989 he was arrested. Dionisio Rodriguez was imprisoned for nearly a year in a Brazilian prison before being extradited to his home country.

He started his media career

already extradited to SpainHe served three years of his sentence. In 1995 he was released on parole and started working. The man took advantage of the media fame he had and opened some bars in Madrid. On one occasion, he even printed 10,000 pesetas notes with his face to promote the opening of one of his own shops, which earned him a dismissed money forgery charge.

Also, Joachim Sabina He composed a song for him, entitled: “With a couple for obvious reasons”, where he tells the story of the robbery and above all the subsequent life of El Dioni as a millionaire, from the point of view of the great musician.

At the beginning of the millennium, the good reception towards him made him one of the recurring faces of Spanish television. Interviews, reality shows and he has also worked as an actor, but finally confirming that he is a real rock star, he has become pornstars. In May 2014 she started her career in adult cinema with the director and also actor Torbe.

Today, already retired from all those things, he leads a normal life, he is a grandfather and great-grandfather. Dioni, 73, enjoys life with other married couples and family friends.

He considers himself a normal, dutiful and hardworking man. Gone are his years of excess and lust. He currently lives on his pension of 830 euros like any other Spanish pensioner, and when some curious person asks him about the robbery, he has no problem recounting the details and stating that he would do it again “but better”.