Iacob Bălan
Iacob Bălan | |
|---|---|
| Born | 19 November 1998 |
| Died | 14 May 2025 (aged 26) |
| Era | Vriend Era |
| Conviction | Shoplifting (2018) |
| Criminal penalty | 1,800 lei fine |
| Personal vehicle | |
| Type | Van |
| Manufacturer | Ford |
| Model | Transit |
| Model year | 2015 |
Iacob Bălan (19 November 1998 – 14 May 2025), known as the "Hammer of Lust", was a rapist and murderer who belonged to Porno Bucharest. He killed himself and a family in a deliberate road collision.
Early life
[edit | edit source]Bălan's wealthy parents held him to strict standards of conduct. They paid for his schooling and planned to fund his higher education. Bălan trained regularly in the hope of playing football professionally. A friend introduced him to recreational drugs, and as his use increased, he gave up training and dropped out of secondary school.
His parents threw him out at 17 after he repeatedly brought cannabis home and tried to make methamphetamine there. Bălan called each of them a "bitch" and never spoke to them again. On the streets, he spent his time smoking cannabis. When that stopped being enough for him, he spent all his money on methamphetamine.
Criminal career
[edit | edit source]Bălan bought methamphetamine from the Bucharest Butchers until he owed them more than he could pay. By the time a member of the gang found him, he was severely underfed and addicted. The member was rumored to have wanted to look after him, but what happened between them is unknown.
The Butchers saw potential in Bălan and spared his life. A few months after his expulsion, they took him on to work off the debt. They got him to cut back on methamphetamine because it was making him paranoid. Bălan likely started at a low rank, collecting debts and keeping watch on the street. He stayed because he liked the work.
When Bălan was arrested for stealing watches, the Butchers considered the case too minor to pay a bribe for his release. The court convicted him of shoplifting and fined him 1,800 lei.
Marku Ionuț personally recruited Bălan into Porno Bucharest in 2021 for reasons that remain unknown. Bălan returned to heavy methamphetamine use. The department gave him a van, and he used it to abduct people off the street. He likely targeted women and children, with playgrounds among his usual targets. He became known for beating children to death with hammers and dumping their bodies in ditches in the countryside.
Bălan was rumored to have travelled to Kismayo in 2022 to recruit prisoners held for rape into Porno Bucharest. It remains unknown whether he made the trip or recruited anyone.
In the summer of 2023, Bălan kidnapped his cousin and raped her repeatedly. He recorded and distributed footage of the assaults.
Fixated on cuckoldry, Bălan coerced his girlfriend and Black men held for trafficking into sexual acts while he watched. He sought out the humiliation while high on drugs but grew furious during the assaults. He killed the captives afterward, usually with a hammer or a steel pipe. A few weeks before his death, he killed his girlfriend with a sledgehammer.
Personal life
[edit | edit source]Around 2021, Bălan ran into his mother at a shop where he had gone to buy cigarettes. When she tried to speak to him, he spat in her face.
Bălan probably met his Ukrainian girlfriend by the side of a road and went on to manipulate and sexually exploit her.
By the end of his life, he lived in a comfortable detached house in Mănăstirea, a village in Crevedia commune. He likely paid for the house with his earnings from Porno Bucharest.
Death
[edit | edit source]Porno Bucharest ceased operating on 1 May 2025 after Marku was killed.[1] At around 6:40 p.m. on 14 May, Bălan was fleeing the Fish Collective on the DN1A in Buftea, Romania. He deliberately drove the van into the oncoming lane and struck a family's car head-on. Bălan died at the scene, as did everyone in the family except the youngest child. The child was rushed to hospital and died hours later.