Tie-dyed and gray jacket-clad, Juan Gregorio arrives at the Toledo Provincial Court with 13 students to attend a drug trafficking trial, but it is ultimately postponed due to the failure of an accused to appear . At 58 years old, the great teacher of these aspiring private security agents devotes himself to teaching because of the consequences left by some moonshiners, those who use cars as battering rams, after almost three decades in the Civil Guard. “I spent about 27 years chasing criminals in the street,” summarizes the man who received in court the Cross of Merit from the Civil Guard with a red badge for this risky police intervention.
He entered at the age of 17 to do his voluntary military service and, barely 18 years old, he attended his first funeral: that of the young civil guards murdered by ETA with a car bomb in the Square of the Dominican Republic, in Madrid, July 14, 1986. In the television images, he carries on his shoulders the coffin of one of the victims. “I still get goosebumps when I see myself.”says Juan, who has another memory: one of those killed in this massacre was his instructor at the academy in Úbeda (Jaén).
“I was suspicious and I called”
The events that would trigger his early retirement occurred two decades later, when he already had extensive experience in pursuing criminals. On the afternoon of September 25, 2006, Juan was in the Europolis industrial zone, in Las Rozas, the Madrid town where he worked. He was in civilian clothes and in his personal car, a Citroën Saxo 1500 diesel.
Suddenly, a BMW 320 Series, occupied by three or four young people, caught his attention. “I got suspicious and called headquarters. They informed me that it was a stolen vehicle. “So I moved a little closer and confirmed the registration.” He began to follow, waiting for the support patrols to arrive. However, the individuals noticed him and attacked him. “I was parked in the corner, watching them, and I crossed the sidewalk when they came towards me.”
He had played the game behind the bad guys many times, but this was the first time he became the mouse chased by the cat. “I began my evasive escape and went over the speed bumps in the ground at full speed, without braking, because my car was small. I was going all out and, honestly, at that point the least I cared about was what might happen to the car. “I knew the inferior BMW would brake to avoid breaking the crankcase because I had chased down moonshiners many times and I knew how they acted.”
While the criminals were chasing him, Juan lost control of his car on the main street of the industrial zone as they were attacking him from behind. “On another street there was a dump truck driving in front of me and I thought it was going to put me under its wheels. I saw my life in danger and tried to get the gun I had in a bagbut during the first accelerations and braking, he found himself on the ground. It was impossible to catch him driving at 100 kilometers per hour, beeping to avoid a collision and braking to avoid accidents. He drove the truck forward with his eyes closed and finally got rid of the criminals. “It seemed like an eternity, even though it was only a few minutes, maybe two or three. “I had been in a lot of trouble, but this was the first time I saw the lady with the scythe.”
In the midst of this reckless whirlwind, Juan remembers that it gave him time to think. “You don’t realize how fast the brain works.” “My anger,” with the bad guys close behind, “was that my daughters were going to be orphaned.” and that I didn’t take anyone with me since I couldn’t get the gun out.
That same afternoon, the car chasing him was used to steal the vehicle of a senior ministry official and they fled with it, also attempting to attack the national police in Fuenlabrada. The next day, an office in Cajamadrid, Getafe, was robbed at gunpoint and with shots fired in the air. “When I spoke with the National Police, They told me it was a good thing I didn’t draw my gun, because if I had, I probably would have been shot.“, he remembers.
On October 12, 2016, Juan collected the medal with a red badge from the hands of the colonel director of the College of the Young Guards. In the television image, at the age of 18, he carries the coffin of one of the guards murdered during the attack on Madrid Square, in the Dominican Republic, in 1986. With a gun, at beginning of 1987, in one of his first services at the post of Terriente (Teruel), towards the Source of the Tagus. They couldn’t get there because of the snowfall.
With his car damaged, especially at the rear due to the violent blows, he arrived at the Las Rozas barracks. After a few days, He started not sleeping at night and they discovered injuries to his cervical spine.. Although “I can count on my hands the few times I have been sick,” even while working with a fever, the medical argument prevailed.
Repairing the car cost him 2,000 euros, because neither the Civil Guard nor the Ministry of Justice paid attention to his complaint. Additionally, the case was filed because it could not be determined who was in the BMW.
Over time, the Community of Madrid recognized his disability and appointed him medical captain of the Tres Cantos command. “I asked him if he was talking to a captain or a doctor. He replied with a doctor then I asked him if he had professional secrecy, to which he replied yes. Juan revealed to him the health problems caused by the police intervention and the medical captain assured him that he would keep him on sick leave for a few months and that he would then consider whether or not to contact the Commission of Medical Experts which decides whether a pathology is disabling.
Two months later, he requested voluntary release and continued to work as a first corporal. He changed his destination to the Illescas barracks, where he led an area that is now called Citizen Security. “They didn’t know anything about my life. I wanted to start with a clean slate. I sat up, but he started punishing my neck; the cervix again. He went on sick leave after three months. Toledo’s medical commander called him to see how he was doing and “I made the decision to say it, to take the plunge, but I didn’t want to leave the Civil Guard. “I loved working on the streets and I didn’t think I would do it in an office.”
In the spring of 2012, at the age of 46, he was permanently released due to loss of psychophysical conditions. “It was hard for me to leave,” he admits, “because I had been there since I was 17 and I didn’t know how to do anything else.”
He had thought about studying history when he retired, but after retiring too early, he opted for law at UNED, working as a civil guard exam preparer. “There is one thing I am proud of,” he says, and that is having had as a student the woman who obtained number 1 of the class of 2021 in the meritorious corps.
He also obtained the master’s degree in access to the legal profession in Toledo, at the University of Castile-La Mancha. And as he had different qualifications in private security, he decided to train security agents in the FIES centers, in Toledo, and Finse, in Madrid, where he continued. Here they provide social service to people who are working or lack professional qualifications. Juan does the math and thinks that “I have already trained more security agents than aspiring civil guards”.
“Render justice”
Returning to this persecution which could have cost him his life, he took advantage of a regulatory change and won in court the cross of merit with a red badge that the Civil Guard had refused him. Since 2012, it has already been granted for loss of psychophysical conditions, as was his case, and it was imposed on him on October 12, 2016 at his own request. His wife and daughters, who always supported him, were even more proud of him..
As a lawyer, he continues to fight for “justice to be done” with a civil guard. He was sentenced in 2014 by the Madrid Provincial Court to three years in prison for “making a mistake” when serving a traffic fine. Clinging to a Constitutional Court ruling in a similar case, Juan explains, he filed a miscarriage of justice complaint in July with the Supreme Court and is awaiting a response. If this was negative, he announced that he would pursue his appeal until the last resort.
If only those Moonlanders knew what happened to the guy they were chasing…
