Antonio "Tony" Montana was a Cuban-American drug lord who ruled Miami, Florida during the 1980s. Montana was one of the 25,000 Cuban criminals to arrive in the United States during the Mariel boatlift of May 1980, and he worked his way up the ranks of Miami's criminal underworld, working for Frank Lopez before taking over his organization for himself. Montana became a very wealthy man, but his marriage and empire collapsed due to his rash decisions caused by his cocaine addiction and his greed. In 1983, he betrayed his former ally, Alejandro Sosa, who attempted to have Montana killed. Montana managed to evade being killed during Sosa's assault on his mansion, although the world thought him to be dead. He went on to rebuild his Miami empire from scratch, and he vanquished all of his enemies, including Sosa, enabling him to return to being Miami's largest drug lord.
Biography[]
Montana in the Cuban Army, 1976
Antonio Montana was born in Cuba, and the details of his early life are mysterious. He claimed to have had an American father who taught him how to speak English by taking him to Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney movies as a young boy. During the communist reign in Cuba, Montana was involved with crime, becoming an assassin and an armed robber. He was later drafted into the Cuban Army, where he learned how to shoot. Montana would befriend fellow soldier Manny Ribera during his military service, and he also befriended Angel Fernandez and Chi-Chi.
Coming to America[]
Montana speaking with INS agents
In May 1980, Montana was one of the 125,000 Cubans who after seeking refuge in the Peruvian Embassy, wound up on the Mariel boatlift to Miami in the United States. Montana's friends from his army days also took part in the boatlift, as all of them had been released by Fidel Castro's prisons and sent into exile together. Montana told the Immigration and Naturalization Services officials that he had a right to a green card as the son of an American and as a former political prisoner, but because he had a trident-style tattoo on his right hand (which indicated that he was an assassin in prison), his request was denied.
Working for Lopez[]
Manolo and Montana in Freedomtown
Tony and Manolo were then sent to "Freedomtown", a refugee camp that held Cuban immigrants without green cards. After one month in the camp, Frank Lopez, head of a Miami drug cartel, offered to obtain them green cards in return for murdering Emilio Rebenga, a former communist official who fled to the United States after being purged by Castro. Soon after Rebenga arrived at the camp, Ribera and Montana and friend took advantage of the August 11 Freedomtown riots, where Montana stabbed Rebenga. Montana and Ribera were granted green cards and released, and the two got jobs as dishwashers for a small food stand in Little Havana. In August 1980, Lopez sent his right-hand man, Omar Suarez, to offer them a deal smuggling marijuana, offering $500, a small amount of pay but with low risk of arrest or gun battles. Montana demanded more pay, and he and Suarez quarreled. On the advice of his compatriot Waldo Rojas, Suarez then offered Montana and Ribera $5,000 to buy cocaine from a new supplier, which was riskier than the marijuana deal but would pay much more, as it is dealing with violent Colombians.
A few days later, Montana, Ribera, and their associates Angel and Chi-Chi drive to a hotel in Miami Beach to make the deal with a group of Colombians led by Hector the Toad. The deal went bad; a couple of Colombian enforcers handcuffed Montana and Angel to a shower pole at gunpoint, threatening to kill them with a chainsaw if Montana did not reveal the location of the drug money. Tony refused to talk, and Hector, the enforcers' leader, dismembered Angel. Before Hector could do the same to Tony, Ribera bursted into the room, shooting an SMG. A short gunfight ensued in which Manny was shot in the arm, and Tony killed the Colombians. Tony, Manny, and Chi Chi escaped with the cocaine and the money. Tony, who no longer trusted Omar, took it to Frank personally, and he and Manny ended up working for him. Meanwhile, Tony took an interest in Frank's girlfriend, Elvira Hancock.
Three months later, Tony paid a visit to his mother Georgina and younger sister Gina, neither of whom he had seen for five years. Gina was excited to see Tony, but his mother was ashamed of him, having long ago learned of his life of crime. When he gave his mother $1,000, his mother angrily rejected the gift and threw him out. Tony left, but Gina ran after him and hugged him, telling Tony she had been going to hairdressing school and helping out their mother. Tony says that a poor girl like Gina deserved to have a little fun; he slipped her the $1,000 secretly and ordered her not to tell their mother about it, only that their mother got a little bit of it from time to time, through using some of it for grocery shopping or paying a utility bill.
Taking over[]
Later, while in Bolivia, Tony and Omar went on Frank's behalf to see drug cartel lord Alejandro Sosa. Sosa had Omar killed for being a police informant, and made Tony his business partner. At The Babylon nightclub, Tony was shaken down by corrupt narcotics detective Mel Bernstein, who informed him he had evidence linking Tony to the murders of Rebenga and the Colombian drug dealers. Bernstein proposed to "tax" Tony on his transactions in return for police protection and information. Tony was convinced Frank sent Bernstein because only Frank would know details about the murders. While talking to Bernstein, Tony saw Gina dancing with a low-level drug dealer. Enraged, Tony beat the dealer and slapped Gina, stopping only after Manny calmed him down. Manny drove Gina home and told her she can do better than those low lives and that Tony was only looking out for her. However, when Gina admitted an interest in Manny, he froze, fearing Tony's wrath.
That night, two hitmen attempt to kill Tony at the Babylon Club. He escaped, and became convinced that Frank ordered his death. Armed with silenced pistols, Tony and Manny tracked Frank down to his car dealership, killing him and Bernstein. Afterward, Tony went to Frank's house, telling Elvira that her lover was dead and that he wanted her. Over the next year-and-a-half, Tony made $75 million off of 2,000 kilograms of cocaine that he brought to America, and was soon making $10–15 million every month in profits from his business relationship with Sosa. He married Elvira and took over Frank's empire, purchasing a large mansion as well as ornate luxuries such as a pet tiger. Tony also created many legal businesses as fronts, including a hairdresser's managed by Gina. However, cracks in Tony's "American dream" began to form as both he and Elvira became addicted to cocaine. Meanwhile, Manny and Gina began dating behind her brother's back, afraid of Tony's wrath should he find out.
Decline[]
In February 1983, Tony was arrested for tax evasion and money laundering. Tony's lawyer, George Sheffield, told him that although he could plea bargain away most of the time Tony faced, he would still end up serving at least three years in prison. Sosa called Tony down to Bolivia and asked him for help assassinating a Bolivian anti-government activist, Matos Gutierrez, who was exposing Sosa's dealings with Bolivian leaders.
In exchange, Sosa would use his contacts in the U.S. Justice Department in Washington DC, to keep Tony out of prison. After returning to Miami, Tony did not tell Manny about the hit, although he tried to talk Tony out of going to New York, simply citing a bad premonition he has about it. Not long after, Elvira left Tony for good after he insulted her in a local restaurant. An intoxicated Tony started yelling at the patrons: he told them that they need people like him to blame - a "bad guy".
Tony and Sosa's associate Alberto Ruiz travelled to New York to assassinate Gutierrez. Alberto plants a bomb under the activist's car, planning to detonate it as he drove to the United Nations Building to give a speech about his activist work. On the day the assassination was to take place, Tony ordered Alberto not to set off the bomb because the activist's wife and children were in the car as well, something which was of no concern to Alberto. When Alberto tried to detonate the bomb anyway, Tony attempted to persuade him using logic and stories from his childhood in Cuba. When this did not work, Tony shot and killed Alberto, thus double-crossing Sosa.
Presumed death[]
On December 9, 1983 Tony returned to Florida and received a telephone call from a furious Sosa, who admonished him for the hit's failure. Tony attempted to locate Manny, and found him and Gina together, both wearing nothing but bathrobes. Tony shoots and killed him in a cocaine-fueled rage, before Gina revealed that they had just married and were going to announce their matrimony to Tony. Tony and his men took a distraught Gina back to his mansion. Meanwhile, a large group of assassins sent by Sosa surrounded the mansion.
While a distraught Tony sat in his office, snorting vast quantities of cocaine, the gunmen began killing his guards outside. Gina entered Tony's office wielding a Smith & Wesson Model 36, accusing him of wanting her for himself, before shooting him in the leg. Tony attempted to calm her down, before one of the assassins entered the office through the window and opened fire, killing Gina. Tony immediately killed the assassin, creating a commotion.
Deprived of the element of surprise, Sosa's gunmen directly attacked Tony's mansion. Tony burst from his office wielding a M16 assault rifle with a M203 grenade launcher attachment. He yelled "Say hello to my little friend!" and opened fire on the henchmen, killing dozens of them despite being heavily wounded himself by return fire. Montana succeeded in fighting off the hitmen, including the notorious hitman "The Skull". He then fought his way out of his mansion and escaped in a limousine as the SWAT stormed the mansion and killed the remaining Sosa Cartel and Montana Cartel men.
Life in hiding[]
Montana went missing after the shooting, and the SWAT and Montana's enemies believed him to be dead. However, Montana instead lived in a small house, and he swore to never use cocaine again, and to rebuild his empire from scratch. He decided to reclaim Little Havana from the Diaz Brothers, Downtown Miami from Nacho Contreras, and Miami Beach from Gaspar Gomez, and to eventually take down Sosa.