The Montana Cartel was a American drug cartel based in Miami. Founded in 1980 by Cuban immigrants Tony Montana, Manny Ribera, Angel Fernandez, and Chi-Chi, the cartel became one of the largest criminal organizations in the city after their takeover of the Lopez Cartel, and the Montana Cartel inherited all of Frank Lopez's fronts. In 1983 the Montanas lost all of their territory after Montana's supposed death, but Montana later came out of hiding and took back all of these territories, seized the Florida Keys from the Ortega Cartel, and killed all of his enemies. The Montana Cartel was enemies with the Gomez Cartel, Diaz Brothers, Ortega Cartel, Sosa Cartel, Contreras Cartel, Colombian drug cartels, and many small Miami gangs, while they were allies with the Blood Brothers, The Sandman's Cartel, and formerly the Lopez Cartel and Sosa.
History[]
Background[]
Tony Montana moved to America in 1980 during the Mariel Boatlift, alongside good friend Manny Ribera. The two were sent to Freedomtown, as the immigration officials did not buy their stories about being average civilians; they went to jail, as they were assassins back in Cuba. Montana and Ribera worked as contract killers for Frank Lopez in order to get a green card so that they could leave the complex, virtually a ghetto, after two months of stay there. Since they were assassins, they were hired to murder Emilio Rebenga, a Cuban government official who murdered Lopez's brother in 1959. On August 11, 1980, the refugees of Freedomtown attacked the guards with sticks and planks, attacking the fences as well. Rebenga was caught up in the rioting, and he was killed by Montana, who stabbed him once in the chest, and he slumped away, before dying in the middle of the roads.
Afterwards, Montana, Manny, Chi-Chi and Angel Fernandez were freed from the camp, and were employed as chefs at a Cuban El Paraiso food stand. Frank Lopez's lieutenants Omar Suarez and Waldo Rojas visited them at the stand, and they offered them a job for unloading 25 tons of Marijuana for $500 each. However, Montana wanted a better job, so they were told to go to the Sun Ray Hotel on Miami Beach, where they would oversee a drug deal with the Colombian Cartel.
They go to the hotel with a suitcase of money, so Fernandez and Montana went inside the hotel, while Chi-Chi and Ribera waited in their car outside, keeping watch for any trouble; if Montana and Fernandez were not out in fifteen minutes, something was wrong. Hector the Toad met with them in his apartment room, but an arguement broke out over where the drugs and money were. A Colombian gangster apprehended Fernandez, and Montana and Fernandez were forced into the shower in the bathroom, where they were chained up. Hector killed Fernandez with a chainsaw, as Montana watched, but before Montana could be killed, Chi-Chi and Ribera stormed the building, killing all five of the gangsters. Hector fled to the street, bleeding out, where he was shot once in the head and once in the chest. Montana drove off with Chi-Chi and Manny, escaping the crime scene.
Afterwards, Montana and Manny brought both the cocaine and the money to Lopez at his condo, and they became friends, and Tony became soldier for him, his trusted Soldier, under Omar Suarez. They went to the Babylon Club, where Lopez pointed out the potential bosses in the city: Nacho Contreras, Luis Echevarria, and Miguel Echevarria, of the Contreras Cartel and the Echevarria Cartel, all three of whom would become enemies of Montana.
Montana was offered the job of running a string of mules from Colombia to Miami, among other jobs, in August. However, when Montana met with Alejandro Sosa of the Bolivian Cartel in Cochabamba, Bolivia, Montana made his own decisions without Lopez's consent, although Suarez argued with him that he could not do so. Suarez was taken on a ride with The Skull in a helicopter while Montana talked with Sosa, and was hung from the bottom of the helicopter in mid-air, as he was believed to be a chivato (police informant). Montana and Sosa became friends with one another, and
Montana's relations soured with Lopez after this incident, and he argued that the decisions he made were good for the cartel. Lopez also noticed that Montana was flirting with his girlfriend Elvira Hancock, and he sent 2 assassins to kill Tony at the Babylon Club. Montana was not hit, and he disabled both of them with a few gunshots. To find out if Lopez tried to kill him, Montana told Nick the Pig to call Lopez to say that they screwed up on the hit, at the same time that Montana was meeting with Lopez. He recieved the phone call during the meeting, and Montana's suspicions were confirmed. Ribera shot Lopez in the head execution-style, and Montana also killed Mel Bernstein, a police officer who was working for Lopez by putting out stings on rival cartels. Montana employed Ernie as his security chief, allowing all of Frank's old henchmen to join his empire, keeping their homes, jobs, and money.
Montana Cartel[]
Montana took over all of Lopez's rackets, with Manny Ribera as his second-in-command, and Chi-Chi as his lieutenant. He made tons of money through the cocaine trade, buying protection rackets as his fronts for the distribution of crack cocaine, heroin, and marijuana. Montana quickly became one of the richest men in Miami, using connections in Bolivia to his advantage. The Bolivian Cartel and the Montana Cartel were good allies with each other, and were trustworthy of each other, as they promised not to betray each other at the Cochabamba Meeting in August. He made enemies with Gaspar Gomez, the Luco Cartel, the Echevierra Bros, and the Diaz Brothers (who had a beef since the 1980 Sun Ray Hotel shootout, who were all enemies of Lopez, but was not an enemy of Nacho Contreras.
The Montana Cartel took over Little Havana, Downtown Miami, North Beach, and South Beach, and had a steady flow of cash. There was an incident where he was arrested in a sting operation after his cocaine trading operations were at their peak, as his banker Seidelbaum was an undercover FBI agent. Tony decided to seek help from lawyer George Sheffield, but it was certain that he would have to go to jail for three years even if Sheffield was able to win on one of the charges. Tony sought help from Sosa, who offered to use his connections with the US government to ensure that he did not have to do jail time. However, he would have to kill journalist Matos Gutierrez before he would do a report on Sosa's cartel on 60 Minutes, and Sosa sent Tony to help his his hitman Alberto in killing Gutierrez in New York City. Montana soon developed a cocaine addiction, and his wife, Elvira, fled from him after he told Ribera that her womb was corrupted by cocaine, so she was barren. Montana was angered by Alberto trying to tell him what to do, and when Alberto insisted upon killing Gutierrez with a car bomb even after his wife and children entered his car, Tony kill Alberto. He refused to kill the wife and kids in addition to the man, and in doing so he had angered Sosa. As a result, the Bolivian cartel went to war with Tony.
Montana murdered his best friend Manny when he found out that he had married his sister Gina, and Montana returned to his mansion with Gina, who was inconsolable and angry at Tony. Meanwhile, Sosa's henchmen attacked the mansion, killing all of his employees as Montana snorted cocaine. Montana only realized he was under attack after Gina was killed by a gunman who had climbed up onto the balcony of his room, and Tony decided to gear up with weapons and take out the Bolivians. He shot his way past all of the Bolivian henchmen, using an M16 and a grenade launcher to kill dozens of Bolivians. Tony fought his way out of his mansion, killing many Bolivians along the way, and he escaped to his car.. Soon, SWAT teams and the MPD arrived, and all of the cartel men on both sides were killed at the mansion. Montana, wounded, escaped in his Rolls Royce, believed to have died in the attack.
Montana's Reclaiming of Power[]
Montana fled for three months, hiding in a safehouse while the world believed that he was dead. Montana had little money, his mansion was occupied by the Vice , and other gangs took over his territories. He came out of hiding, finding out that Little Havana was taken over by the Diaz Gang, Downtown Miami by the Contreras Cartel, and North Beach and South Beach by the Gomez Cartel. He headed to the Babylon Club, hiring George Sheffield as his lawyer once more, and trading drugs with help from Coco and Felix , and he got back on track. He attempted to kill Gaspar Gomez at the La Normande Hotel, killing several of his henchmen, but only found his chief of security, Ricardo, and pushed him off the balcony of the penthouse, killing him. Montana killed all of Gomez's cartel boys in the hotel, and stole his satellite phone and his armored car, carrying $50,000. He used the phone to call his driver, Tino , and his enforcers, who patrolled the streets. He got into serious gang heat by killing drug dealers and stealing their money and cocaine, and gang retaliation was common, either against Montana's newly-gained rackets, or being drive-by shootings targeted at Montana or his employees.
He took over Little Havana first, after killing the Diaz Brothers with a chainsaw. Then, he fought the Contreras Cartel, killing Nacho Contreras on his barge in the Cayman Islands where he set up his base, before conquering The Mothership, another one of his barges, which he used to smuggle human slaves in from Mexico. The Contreras Cartel were destroyed following the conquest of Downtown Miami, and Tony took over North Beach and South Beach from Gomez in a series of murders and jobs. Soon, Tony decided that he he would expand a franchise to Atlanta, Boston, Pittsburgh, and New York when he found out that O'Grady had a contact that could help him out, and Montana's goods spread all across the country.
Following these inconveniences for the rival cartels, Alejandro Sosa met with Montana's treacherous lawyer George Sheffield and Gaspar Gomez in Cochabamba, where he had his estate. Montana, all by himself and with a large arsenal of weapons, killed all of the Bolivians and shot Gomez, Sheffield, and Sosa, taking Miami for himself. Montana was now the boss of the whole city, and he could go to the Cayman Islands or Miami at his leisure, raking in income from drug deals and from distributing cocaine to his rackets.
Members[]
- Tony Montana
- Manny Ribera
- Chi-Chi
- Nick the Pig
- Ernie
- Tino
- Felix
- Charles Cooper
- Ladonna Puebla
- Luke Bates
- Aldo Strong
- Ana Yamada
- Stephen Lee
- Jose Campos
- Lucero Pasillas
- Tino Largo
- Jeronimo Romero
- Emily Duenas
Fronts[]
- Pedro's Pawn Shop
- Fidel's Tapes
- Cabana Cigar
- Oakley Drive-In Theater
- The Babylon Club
- O'Grady's Liquor Store
- U-Gin Shotgun bar
- Sun Ray Hotel
- Swansong Hotel
- Macau Fast Food
- Chi Peso Trattoria
- Montana Records
- Montana Holdings
- Montana Fitness
- Montana Productions
- Montana Legal
- Montana Sports
- Montana Financial
- Montana Defense