'Loky', the most active graffiti artist in Extremadura, avoids jail: "I didn't sleep, painting relaxes me"

January 29, 2015. Two plainclothes police officers wait in camouflage in a car at four in the morning.

Any noise can blow up the hunt for

, the most wanted graffiti artist in Plasencia, a city of 45,000 residents in the north of Extremadura.

Four months of stealthy work, suspicions, discards, questions and interrogations of citizens were at stake.

The eyes focused on a 35-year-old man who broke all the schemes and stereotypes of local graffiti artists.

Loky

played hard

Everyone knew his signature, but no one knew his face.

What if he's from outside?

He would only be guilty if he was caught red-

, a titanic task that required a lot of patience and, above all, luck.

He accumulated more than 300 signatures throughout the city: historical monuments, single-family houses, garages, townhouses, flats, portals, containers, litter bins, pavilions, shops, workshops, schools, nurseries.

Municipal calculations speak of 8,395 Plasencians affected -almost one in five- with his stamp, which he traced in a blink of an eye.

A capital “L”, a small “o”, a “k” with one of its legs well elongated and very stylish, and a “y” shaped like a devil's cane:

.

Eight years after that cold morning, he has been judged.

The neighbors, at last, have put a face to it.

“What major”, “he doesn't look like a graffiti artist”, he has been heard in the corridors of the court.

the

, generous, has even granted a press conference to everyone's surprise:

I will speak, yes.

Do you mind if I smoke a cigarette?

His lawyer has prevented him from entering prison at the last moment, but his adventures have not gone unpunished.

This is the story of

, the most wanted graffiti artist from Extremadura in history:

"He drove us crazy!"

The mayor of Plasencia, Fernando Pizarro, says that, at the end of 2014, every morning a part of the city was painted.

That there was no way to find the author.

The buzz on the terraces, bars, social networks and houses was evident.

“Who the hell is this

?” the neighbors asked him.

His shoulders shrugged in response.

The municipal police began to investigate his account.

All the neighborhoods had to be searched.

Ask at schools, institutes, neighborhood associations.

A real plan against the

He, oblivious to his hunting, was in his element.

Every day, more and more painted.

Mayor Pizarro says that between the time the first ones started and they caught him, between four and five months passed.

He says that all kinds of rumors reached him about who that boy could be.

That to paint, he even painted in the Trujillo Bridge, historical heritage of the city.

That nothing, that no.

That all suspicions ended up in the trash.

And suddenly, one morning in December, a neighbor sits down to have coffee with him.

“I think I know who the

is .

Pizarro, ojiplático, opens up to his ears.

"I think so, because, look at him, we shared textbooks when we were little and he also signed that way in the margins."

The mayor responds naturally:

"Don't you fuck around?"

Yes, the spelling is the same.

One of the signatures of Diego Terrón, alias 'Loky', stamped on the door of a private garage in Plasencia.ROBERTO PALOMO

Pizarro immediately alerts one of his municipal agents.

He gives them a first name: “Diego”.

The machinery against

is in motion.

The police, in parallel, had drawn up a plan that fell on Pedro Blázquez and Juan Carlos Rodríguez, two of their best men, 46 years old and with more than 20 years of service.

“The plan against the

it started everywhere,” says Blázquez.

They investigated, above all, among groups of adolescents and young people, from all neighborhoods, also with well-known graffiti artists.

The local police went with everything: 11 agents, divided between schools and institutes.

Did some kids know who Loky was?

Probably, but chirping, at certain ages, is a sin marked in red.

“He is not as young as you think”, they indicated.

"He is very lonely."

"Goes with a dog."

"Paint at night".

Loky

no longer a ghost, he was beginning to have a face.

One morning, a man who was walking towards the hermitage of the patron saint of the city stopped short when he saw two municipal agents:

“I've seen the

painted with my own eyes.

More clues.

More footprints.

On January 29, 2015, agents Blázquez and Rodríguez left the police station at dawn in a camouflaged patrol car.

In civilian clothes, they saw a man come out of a doorway.

All the Placentinos were suspects in the wee hours of the morning.

But nothing, he was just a neighbor.

About to start the engine, the agents saw in front of their noses another man walking with a hat and jeans.

He met all the clues.

Blázquez and Rodríguez got out of the car stealthily.

Step by step, at a reasonable distance: 10, 12 meters.

The suspect in the hat was going in between doorways, and out, very fast.

The agents imitated his movements.

They found a graffiti:

.

It was cool, wet.

There were no doubts.

It was him, but you had to catch him red-

.

A minute later, the

into a garage.

Oblivious to the footsteps behind him, he pulls out two sprays, one green and one black.

He raised his arm and shot: “Lo”.

He didn't give more time:

-Tall!

We are police!

told them .

The complaint was underway, but he was free until the day of the trial.

Eight years later, the

has been sentenced this Thursday to a fine of more than 31,000 euros for civil liability and another 2,344 euros for damage to the historical heritage of the city, despite the fact that the Prosecutor's Office requested four years in prison.

An agreement of all parties has prevented him from entering prison at the last moment.

He has 24 months to pay off his debt.

This morning, for the first time, those affected and the rest of his countrymen have finally put a face to him.

“

,

,

.

This is how the garage painted me”, said Feliciana Sánchez, 73 years old.

“He is a scoundrel.

Who is he? Where is he?” commented another.

"The door of the motorcycle workshop screwed me over," said José Vela, 68.

At 11 in the morning his lawyer came out: "I think he wants to talk."

El

, a tall, gray-haired man, with a certain resemblance to the singer Loquillo, has come out through the transparent glass door in jeans, with a blue vest and a matching plaid shirt.

Loky

lonely, has

first given his name.

“My name is Diego Terrón, I am 44 years old”.

"Why do you sign as

?"

―Pfff.

I started in 1992. I was amused that he was a God dedicated to evil.

A journalist has interrupted him.

"Sorry, you can't smoke in front of the TV."

The

does not understand this rule.

“It's like if you fire live, you can't.

Can you wait a moment?”, the reporter asked.

Loky

has been blunt

"Nope!

I do not can!

I want to smoke a cigarette.

You wait for me to smoke it and you record me later”.

So it has been.

He has said that in 2012 he suffered a cerebral aneurysm, a bulging of the brain that prevented him from sleeping easily.

That's why he took the sprays at night and painted the whole city.

“I didn't sleep well, I know it doesn't justify it and that I have hurt a lot of people, but painting

I relaxed a lot, I was very calm.

There were times when I was going to paint a wall and I already had it painted from another day”.

He has said that he is a sculptor, that he is unemployed, but that he can pay the fine.

"Of course I regret what I did."

Minutes before, a policeman announced that they are now after two new graffiti artists who have the same

as

.

El

, smiling, has taken the opportunity to defend his

From him: "I would tell them never to go alone, always bring someone to watch them."

Pedro Blázquez, the policeman who arrested El Loky, attends to the media, at the gates of the Plasencia courthouse. ROBERTO PALOMO

Subscribe to continue reading

read without limits

Keep reading

I'm already a subscriber