Ricardo "Ricky" Sandoval was a former US Marine and undercover DEA Special Agent who infiltrated the Santa Blanca drug cartel over a seven-year period. He eventually became the cartel's head of finances. Karen Bowman was his case officer as he started working with the Kataris 26 rebels.
During his time in Bolivia, he fell in love with a woman named Monica. Later he married her and conceived a daughter during this time in Bolivia.
After a failed attempt in July 2019 by the rebels to assassinate the heads of the cartels, Sandoval's cover was blown and he was forced to evacuate. Sandoval sacrificed himself so Monica could escape, and cartel sicarios cornered him after Monica raced to the American evacuation helicopter. He was brought before El Sueño and tortured for 47 hours. Before La Yuri and El Polito executed him, he asked all the cartel heads if they "believe[d] in Ghosts."
The U.S. Embassy at La Paz was bombed a few days earlier, which caused the American government to move the Santa Blanca cartel to terrorist movement status. A Ghost Recon team, consisting of Nomad, Weaver, Holt, and Midas, along with Agent Bowman, were sent to destabilize the cartel.
Sandoval's body was later located by the Ghosts from an outpost in San Mateo and retrieved by a CIA retrieval team sent by Bowman.
Later, after the Ghosts defeated all of the cartel's top lieutenants, El Sueño contacted the Ghosts to inform them that Sandoval was not the dedicated agent that he appeared to be. Sueño told them that there was a recording of Sandoval's confessing his corrupt actions while being tortured. The recording revealed that it was not Santa Blanca who blew up the U.S. Embassy, but actually Sandoval himself. He confessed that the action was not sanctioned or authorized by any government organization or a third party, but that he did it alone so that the agencies with the right resources to dismantle the Cartel could get involved, hence making Operation Kingslayer possible.
Notes[]
- He is portrayed by D. J. Cotrona in Ghost Recon Wildlands: War Within the Cartel
- In the game, the players can pick up "Kingslayer Files" - audio files from Ricky which reveals how conflicted he was.
- An audio file reveals that after several hours of torture, he admitted that he was the one who bombed the U.S embassy in an attempt to force his superiors to take action against the cartel. He felt that all of his work was for nothing, as the intel he gave on cocaine shipments was ignored and the shipments were never stopped.
- He seems to be based on Enrique "Kiki" Camarena, a DEA agent and Marine Corps veteran who was tortured and killed by the Guadalajara Cartel sicarios in 1984.