Evil money launderer Bennie Rodriguez
Benita "Bennie" Rodriguez (Lauren Vélez) is a villainess from the 2019 action-comedy, Shaft.
Bennie Rodriguez was introduced as a convenience store owner in the film's midpoint, which saw John Shaft and his son, JJ, encounter Bennie after it was uncovered that she had donated $500,000 to a local mosque. The mosque was suspected of terrorism, but as revealed, it was a diversion to cover up Bennie's role in laundering drugs and money for notorious drug lord Pierre "Gordito" Carrera.
As it turned out, Bennie had been working for Gordito for years, and the film's latest operation involved a trio of soldiers--one of the being Bennie's cousin, Dominguez--smuggling drugs from Afghanistan, with JJ's childhood friend, Karim, being killed by Gary Cutworth, when he turned down an offer to become part of their operation. After being encountered by the Shafts, the evil Bennie placed a hit on JJ, with her henchmen tracking JJ to a restaurant where he was on a date with Sasha Arias, leading to a gun battle.
JJ had placed a hidden camera inside Bennie's office, and after he and Sasha survived, the former dialed a number from one of the shooters' phones and reached Bennie, with the villainess (in Spanish) asking if he had successfully killed JJ. After John Shaft successfully took down and killed Gordito, the film's final scenes showed Bennie handcuffed and entering a police car, as she was arrested for her various crimes.
Trivia[]
- For her role, Lauren Vélez was credited under her full name: Luna Lauren Vélez.
- Lauren Vélez is best known for playing recurring villainess Maria LaGuerta on Dexter, and also portrayed villainess Elena Cabrera on Medium, as well as the evil Zoe Mercado on Elementary.