Daniel Rojo

Daniel Rojo Bonilla (born December 2, 1962), best known as Dani el Rojo and El Millonario, is a Spanish former mafia boss, active in the 1980s and 1990s. After serving fourteen consecutive years in prison, he developed a career as a bodyguard, writer and occasional actor and singer.

Biography He was born in a wealthy family of Guinardó and started his career as an outlaw during the Franco dictatorship. He describes his first crime as attacking teacher who had allegedly tried to molest him. He became a drug addict and a burglar by 13, and by 16 he had committed his first bank robbery. For a time he was part of a street gang with José María Sanz, later known as the singer Loquillo. A practitioner of judo, karate and boxing, Rojo committed one of his robberies armed with a nunchaku in imitation of Bruce Lee.

He served multiple prison terms in the infamous La Model penitentiary center in Barcelona, where he acquired HIV in 1986. In another of his ordeals, he was stabbed in the leg with a large shiv while taking down an opponent with a karate kick during a three-man attempt on his life. He was finally sentenced to 32 years in 1991, although he eventually only served 12 of these by good behavior. With the help of social services, he decided to leave crime behind, for which he successfully got off heroin and the rest of the drugs he took. He also studied the first course of a psychology degree.

He later worked as a bodyguard and security expert for celebrities like Rosario Flores, Enrique Bunbury, Andrés Calamaro, Antonio Carmona, Paulina Rubio and Lionel Messi.

In 2010 he wrote with Lluc Oliveras a novelized trilogy of his criminal career, starting with Confesiones de un gánster de Barcelona. Four years later he followed with a sequel trilogy started with La venganza de Tiburón. He started taking film and television roles in 2015, and five years later he added a music career with Sie777e, releasing the album Millonario$.