Ricardo Diaz

Updated 30 October 2026 · Fan site. Not affiliated with Rockstar Games or Take-Two Interactive.

Ricardo Diaz is the drug baron of Vice City in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002) and a major figure in the prequel Vice City Stories (2006). He secretly ordered the 1986 ambush that cost Tommy Vercetti the Forellis' money and drugs. Tommy and Lance Vance kill him in his Starfish Island mansion, which Tommy then takes over. Luis Guzmán voiced him.

Who is Ricardo Diaz?

Ricardo Diaz is the man at the top of the drug trade in Vice City, the 1980s Miami stand-in of the 3D era. He is the second big antagonist of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, which came out on PlayStation 2 in North America on 29 October 2002, according to Wikipedia. Four years later the prequel Vice City Stories showed him earlier in his career.

GTA Wiki gives him a Cuban background. It says he came to the United States from Colombia in 1978, bribed his way to a green card and settled in Vice City in the early 1980s. Fans also know him by his nickname "Mr. Coke".

What is Ricardo Diaz like?

Diaz is loud, jumpy and quick to fly into a rage. GTA Wiki describes him as short, paranoid and unpredictable, always armed and always surrounded by guards. In public he plays the part of a generous philanthropist, but an in-game police file suggests his charity foundations are fronts. The same source says the authorities suspected him of a long list of killings and of running a protection racket.

He also likes his toys. GTA Wiki lists a set of expensive cars and boats tied to him, and his mansion on Starfish Island is one of the most recognisable buildings in the game.

Ricardo Diaz in Vice City Stories (1984)

Vice City Stories is set two years before the original game. Wikipedia's plot summary says Victor "Vic" Vance is introduced to Diaz as a drug baron who wants to take over the business of the Mendez brothers. Diaz hires Vic and Lance Vance for several jobs, and Vic later teams up with him to bankrupt the Mendez operation and track down the dealer Jerry Martinez.

GTA Wiki adds that Lance had borrowed money from Diaz, and that Vic paid the debt off with work, including the attack on the Mendez compound. Those jobs include Steal the Deal, The Exchange and Last Stand. It makes for a bitter piece of irony: the brothers help Diaz grow, and two years later his ambition costs Vic his life.

Did Ricardo Diaz set up the ambush in Vice City?

Yes. Vice City opens in 1986 with a cocaine deal between the Forelli family and the Vances that is hit by gunmen. Tommy Vercetti and the lawyer Ken Rosenberg escape, but the money and the drugs are gone. GTA Wiki says Diaz was behind it, using inside information from a man named Gonzalez, and that Victor Vance was among those killed.

Tommy does not know this at first. Through Colonel Juan Cortez, he and Lance go to work for Diaz. Missions Diaz gives include The Chase, Phnom Penh '86, The Fastest Boat and Supply & Demand. During that stretch Lance finds out who really ordered the ambush.

How does Ricardo Diaz die?

Wikipedia explains that Lance tries to kill Diaz on his own and is captured. GTA Wiki says Diaz's men held him at a junkyard, where Tommy rescues him. The two then storm the Starfish Island mansion in the mission Rub Out and kill Diaz there. Tommy takes over the house and the drug lord's assets, and the property becomes the Vercetti Estate, the base for the rest of the game.

Who voices Ricardo Diaz?

Diaz is voiced by the actor Luis Guzmán. Wikipedia credits him in the cast of both Vice City and Vice City Stories, so the character sounds the same across the two games even though they were made four years apart.

Diaz's short reign helps explain why Vice City works as a rise-to-power story: the empire Tommy builds starts in Diaz's own house. For the next chapter of that story, see our page on Sonny Forelli, the boss who comes south to claim it.