Cayo Perico (also known as The Island or Paradise) is a private island in the Caribbean, off the coast of Colombia, that appears in Grand Theft Auto Online‘s The Cayo Perico Heist update.
Description
Cayo Perico is regarded as one of the most guarded private islands in the world, and it houses the secluded island complex of the world’s most renowned drug dealer, Juan Strickler (also known as El Rubio).It also includes an incalculable treasure in art, gold, and drug money dispersed over the island.
Cayo Perico is not just the nerve center of El Rubio’s drug enterprise, but it also hosts his other major passion: marathon beach dance parties, where everyone from jetsetters and heiresses to famous music producers gathers to party until the sun comes up.
The island initially featured in the “El Rubio Dossier” teaser from the Los Santos Summer Special update, which showed three sites on the island: a vast clifftop Spanish-style home, a security tower, and a farm.
History:
“Cayo Perico…” You wouldn’t want to know what it was named before he (Juan Strickler) came.
Various antiquities on the island hint to its history, including a cemetery near the airfield, three collapsed obelisks, one of which serves as the focal point of a circular graveyard of 13 sites, and Spanish Empire antiques such as conquistador armor.
Before 2020, Juan “El Rubio” Strickler, one of the world’s most powerful narcotraffickers, purchased the island and called it “Cayo Perico” (which translates to “Cocaine Cay”). He built massive marijuana and cocaine factories on the island, as well as an airfield and two docks for product distribution. Strickler also built a solar farm on the island to conceal his actions, using his green activism as a cover.
To increase his profits, he hosted a beach party on his island for hard partygoers to smuggle his wares in. El Rubio hides a collection of gold and other expensive and rare items in a mansion on the island’s southern tip, including a limited-edition, diamond-encrusted bottle of Sinsimito Tequila, a ruby necklace, several bearer bonds, a large pink diamond, and a diamond-encrusted panther statue sitting on a large sapphire ball.
Any guest or criminal who attempted to steal from El Rubio was either shot or fed to the island’s pet panther, leaving corpses everywhere. Pavel added that successful heists had occurred in the past, but those responsible did not survive long enough to enjoy their victory because El Rubio identified them by their weapons, and their remains were “sent to the panther’s cage in very small boxes”.
Geography
Although the island’s name is “Cayo Perico”—which translates to “Cocaine Cay” in Spanish (or lit. “Parakeet Cay”)—it is not a cay in the topological sense, but rather a high island as evidenced by its rocky topography and height. With the exception of a few beaches, Cayo Perico has minimal sand, with most beaches covered with tiny pebbles.
Cayo Perico’s weather is always set to clear during heist intel or regular visits, so there is no possibility of rain or snow, yet there is a very little chance that the weather will be set to thunderstorm during the Cayo Perico Heist finale.
Points of Interest
The island is packed with historical antiques and intriguing things, some of which are pertinent to the heist and may be sent to Pavel during information gathering for The Cayo Perico Heist. Others are just remarkable because they exist.
The surrounding waters are home to several wrecks, as well as a big meteorite in the far northwest.
Locations and landmarks
- West Beach
- Cayo Perico Beach Party.
- Cayo Perico airstrip
- Cayo Perico Power Station
- Cayo Perico Lighthouse
- Cayo Perico Solar Farm
- El Rubio’s compound
Influence
The island seems to be modelled after Norman’s Cay (also known as Cayo Norman), a small Bahamian island that the Medellín Cartel used as a private party island and transshipment base for smuggling cocaine into the United States.
Meanwhile, the estates and welcome sign are modelled after Hacienda Nápoles, an opulent estate constructed and owned by Pablo Escobar, a Colombian drug lord and leader of the Medellín Cartel.
Cayo Perico’s airstrip is likewise strikingly similar to Norman’s Cay Airport, as shown on the map from the El Rubio Dossier teaser.
The party and musical guests are also probable references to the notorious Fyre Festival, a false effort to stage a luxury music festival in Norman’s Cay that went horribly wrong.
The island’s design appears to be modeled on Canouan, a tiny island in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines that was mirrored and rotated.
Perico is also slang for “cocaine” in Mexico and Colombia, referring to the island’s cocaine farm.
Cayo Perico Heist
Cayo Perico is first visited in late 2020, when the GTA Online Protagonist joins English Dave at a party organized by Juan Strickler as a management member.
The player then goes off to explore the island, hacking into a communication tower to obtain access to the CCTV at Strickler’s complex in order to discover where Martin Madrazo’s files are kept. Pavel then instructs the player to scout out the North Dock and possible secondary targets before continuing their search for infiltration, escape points, sites of interest, or returning to Los Santos to prepare for the robbery.
Once all preparations are completed, the team commits the theft, recovers Madrazo’s data, and flees.
Pavel subsequently advises the player that they may return to Cayo Perico to carry out further heists after Strickler has stocked up on more cash, gold, and other items to be robbed.
The celebration had ended, therefore the player had to pretend to be smugglers in order to return to the island.
At any time throughout the heist plan, players might return to Cayo Perico to get further information.
After completing the robbery as the host, players can return to Cayo Perico and join the party in free roam. You can’t explore the island while the party is going on.
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