After Tommy saves Lance, the pair find themselves forced to kill Diaz before he can retaliate. Upon further investigation, Lance discovers this to be the truth and, against Tommy’s advice, tries to kill Diaz, only to get himself captured. Eventually, Cortez begins voicing his suspicions that Diaz organized the ambush. While investigating, Tommy meets with several people who offer him help: music producer Kent Paul (Danny Dyer), who maintains connections with the city’s criminal underworld Lance Vance (Philip Michael Thomas), who aided in the deal and lost his brother in the ambush Texan real estate developer Avery Carrington (Burt Reynolds), who in return enlists Tommy’s help with several deals and drug kingpin Ricardo Diaz (Luis Guzmán), who employs both Tommy and Lance but treats them as nothing but lackeys. Expressing regret for the ambush, Cortez promises to find out who masterminded it. Seeking information, Ken points Tommy towards Colonel Juan Garcia Cortez (Robert Davi), who helped set up the exchange.
Angered upon hearing the news, Sonny orders Tommy to recover the drugs, alongside the money he gave to him, under threat of consequences. However, the deal is ambushed by unknown assailants, with Tommy and Ken barely escaping it. His boss Sonny Forelli (Tom Sizemore), seeking to establish drug operations in the south, sends Tommy to Vice City following his release, to oversee an important drug deal alongside crooked lawyer Ken Rosenberg (William Fichtner).
In 1986, mobster Tommy Vercetti (voiced by Ray Liotta) is released from prison after serving a fifteen-year sentence for murder.