Benito Graffagnino

Benito Graffagnino born 20th February 1993 was a convicted drug smuggler and drug dealer, now working as an author and activist for prisoners rights.

Early Life
He was born in Bristol, England. Graffagnino had a hard upbringing he would eventually end up in over 20 foster homes due to his behaviour, 3 children's homes and eventually serve 3 years and 3 months in prison for various drug offences including drug dealing and trafficking of Ecstasy and prescription drugs. Whilst serving his time at no less than 7 prisons having spent a considerable amount of his custodial sentence in solitary confinement he was given an additional 6 months for attempted GBH on a prison officer at Portland Prison.

Career
Whilst in prison he was accepted into a Youth Offenders rehabilitation program and completed 4 GCSEs and other courses whilst preparing for his release, becoming a prison samaritan and listener and a trained mental health advisor. On his release from prison, Graffagnino completed 1 year of drug and alcohol rehabilitation along with assisting ex-offenders to settle back into the community and received recognition from local MP's for his work helping the homeless and former drug addicts.

He petitioned to have long hills hostel in Bristol closed down, with some success, the hostel had been visited by inspectors after Graffagnino reported rampant drug use, alcohol abuse, and staff not addressing these issues. The hostel was ordered to make improvements within 60 days or face closure.

Graffagnino has also written articles and participated in podcasts and debates regarding criminal rehabilitation.

Graffagnino then relocated to Peru where he now resides and operates several businesses in the tourism sector. with an aim to use a percentage of the profits from each business to help the poor and disadvantaged communities in Peru.

Graffagnino has published 2 not for profit books mainly on his experiences on crime, punishment, and drug and alcohol abuse. In October 2018 Graffagnino was arrested but later released without charge by Colombian police for allegedly being involved in the supply/trafficking of Cocaine, a charge which he vehemently denies. Articles were published in several newspapers which were later removed due to false reporting.

In September 2021 Graffagnino set up "Fight for the Pueblo" an initiative to help the lower class areas of Peru, with food, drug rehabilitation and support services, citing a large gap in the socio-economic structure of Peru. In an interview with Gestion (A Peruvian newspaper), Graffagnino stated "You look at areas like Miraflores, La Molina, where houses prices can reach into the millions, then you can drive 5-10 minutes and find people who are really struggling to survive, I am not a communist, but this is not right is it? Something needs to change, but I think culturally here in South America this will always be the case, corruption runs rife here, it's a dog-eat-dog world, everyone for themselves. Especially after the last few years of the Coronavirus pandemic, we have seen a correlation between health and social hierarchy. This is one of the reason why Peru has the worlds worst death rate from Coronavirus, when you only have 5 dollars per day to feed your family, you often buy high carb, high sugar content food, which causes significant health problems, which we are seeing now, while the wealthy have private health insurance the poor die in their homes, the rich fly to America to get Vaccinated".

In 2022 Graffagnino plans to open a “casa de comedor” a free restaurant in the poorer areas of Peru with money raised through his charity fundraising.