Mike Toreno

Background

Mike Toreno appears to be the head of the Loco Syndicate, the drug ring supplying Big Smoke and the Ballas, but he is really an agent of an unnamed government agency. He uses drug money and covert operations to further interests overseas and plays by no rules but his own.

Events of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

CJ first sees Toreno with Jizzy B and T-Bone Mendez in Photo Opportunity, and meets him in Mike Toreno, after the Da Nang Boys kidnap him in a drug van. Toreno is suspicious of CJ and almost shoots him. At Pier 69 he arrives by helicopter but aborts when he spots the bodies on the rooftops, and in Toreno's Last Flight CJ shoots down the helicopter he is believed to be on.

After the Syndicate's crack factory is destroyed, Toreno calls CJ to a ranch in Tierra Robada and reveals he survived and works for the government. He offers a deal: work for him, and Sweet will be released from prison. Toreno's jobs are reckless and dangerous: Monster, Highjack, Interdiction, Verdant Meadows, Learning to Fly, N.O.E., Stowaway and Vertical Bird, which sends CJ to steal a Hydra jet from an aircraft carrier. Finally, in Home Coming, Toreno keeps his word, and Sweet is freed.

Toreno's reveal reframes the San Fierro story. In Interdiction he tells CJ that Tenpenny and Pulaski killed Officer Pendelbury, confirming the frame-up CJ has lived under since the start. In Verdant Meadows he admits that Sweet is his leverage, and in N.O.E. he grabs CJ in a chokehold to make a point. In Vertical Bird he interrupts Madd Dogg's recording session and drives CJ to the coast for one last job.

Personality

Toreno is cynical, condescending and fast-talking. He lectures CJ about global politics, mocks his concerns and seems to enjoy keeping him off balance, yet he delivers on his promise in the end.

He talks constantly about the wider world, describing his work as necessary to keep the country safe, while treating the lives of those around him as expendable. He enjoys keeping CJ guessing about his real motives.

Relationships

He uses Jizzy B and T-Bone Mendez as partners in the Syndicate and then leaves them to their fate. His relationship with CJ is one of exploitation that ends in a grudging truce. The Truth distrusts him deeply.

Trivia

• Toreno is voiced by James Woods.
• The ranch in Tierra Robada where he reveals himself becomes a safehouse.
• He is never confirmed to belong to a specific agency; he simply calls himself a government agent.
• He survives the events of the game.