Ricardo Irving

Prime universe
(Capcom's primary storyline)

Biography	Development	Gameplay	Quotes	Appearances	Gallery	Further notes

Ricardo Irving
jp name	リカルド・アーヴィング
Biographical information
Date of birth:	c. 1979
Date of death:	March 6th, 2009
Race/Nationality:	Caucasian/American
Occupation:	TRICELL Researcher Bio-weapons black market dealer
Status:	Deceased
Biological information
Sex:	Male
Height:	180 cm (5 ft 11 in)
Mass:	75 kg (165 lb)
Other Information
First appearance:	Resident Evil 5
Voice:	Allan Groves
Modelled after (Model):	Allan Groves
Mocap:	Allan Groves

"Won't you two just die already!? You're making me look bad. Who do you think got this entire operation off the ground? Research like this doesn't fund itself, you know. Yet everyone looks down on me. But not anymore." — Irving towards Chris and Sheva

Ricardo Irving (リカルド・アーヴィング) (c.1979-2009), also known as the "Merchant of Death", was an American black market dealer of bio-weapons who gained a global presence in the aftermath of the Terragrigia Panic. Considered to be a Mammonite, Irving continued his black market dealings despite being the director of the Kijuju oil field, owned by TRICELL Inc, Africa's resource development division. Irving was a suspected dealer for some time when the BSAA confirmed his presence in Kijuju, setting off a major operation to bring down his dealings, in what became known as the Kijuju Autonomous Zone Incident.

Biography

Early life

Irving is suspected by the BSAA of having been in Raccoon City during the 1998 Raccoon City Destruction Incident, though any evidence confirming this and what he was doing there was lost with the city.

Partnership with Tricell

Irving's activities in the bio-weapons black market date back at least as far as the mid-2000s, by which point he was a senior partner in Tricell's illegal bioweapons research, led by TRICELL Africa's CEO, Excella Gionne and former Umbrella USA researcher, Dr. Albert Wesker. Irving's role in the operation was as the dealer. He sold bioweaponry to terrorist groups across the world, with profits being reinvested in bio-weapons development and footage of the terror attacks used to evaluate the effectiveness of existing B.O.W.s. His legitimate and wealthy business ties not only gave him a reason for traveling across the world should he be investigated, but in being unconnected to Tricell's Pharmaceuticals division the BSAA was fooled into thinking Irving's connection to the company was coincidental. In 2006, Irving was contacted by Patrick, the butler of Umbrella Pharmaceuticals CEO, Oswell E. Spencer. Lord Spencer was close to death, and requested to meet with Wesker, having been aware that Irving had had dealings with Ada Wong, who could pass on the invitation.

Kijuju (2008-09)

Starting from the Spring of 2008, Irving began using the politically unstable Kijuju region of West Africa as a testing ground for Tricell's latest bio-weaponry, namely the "Type-2" and "Type-3" Plaga species, derived from samples supplied to Tricell by Wesker years prior. On Saturday 5 April 2008, he travelled from the oil field to the main village of the Ndipaya tribe, and warned them of a disease in the area that they needed to be inoculated against. Over the next week, the villagers were injected with Type-3 Plaga eggs, which slowly drove the men insane and killed the women and children. Operations involving the Type-2 Plagas took place by mid-December 2008, as Irving began selling samples to Kijujuan nationalists who sought to resume their country's civil war. The BSAA became suspicious of increasing violence in Kijuju due to the spate of animal mutilations that took place alongside it.

Irving and his mysterious partner ambush the Alpha team from BSAA.

On Thursday 19 February 2009, agent Reynard Fisher photographed Irving in a private meeting with soldiers. The BSAA was aware that his air travels abroad from the United States not only took him to locations where bioterrorist attacks occurred, but that his travels took place immediately before and after. His presence in Kijuju verified their suspicions, and an investigation was ordered by senior BSAA SOA Chris Redfield, which confirmed their suspicions and established an approximate date of his next deal on 5 March 2009 with an American buyer.

Chris and Sheva attempt to capture Irving

Due to the presence of spies within the BSAA, Irving became aware of the operation to arrest him and changed a planned deal location with an American buyer to the foreman's office in the local mine, though led the BSAA to his original warehouse location. On Thursday 5 March, a BSAA SOU led by Captain Dan DeChant moved into the warehouse and were set up by an Uroboros creature created by Jill Valentine, an agent of Wesker's. The set-up did not go entirely as expected, as although Alpha Team was totally wiped out, they were successful in obtaining important information from his computer which pointed towards the real location of the deal site. Irving, who had remained within the building, narrowly avoided being captured by Bravo Team members Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar. Realising his folly, when Irving escaped the warehouse with Valentine, he contacted his trading partners and called off the deal at the mines, though continued travelling there to collect sensitive materials he had there. When Redfield and Alomar stormed into the building, he was rescued by Valentine and taken to the oil fields. Though he again left behind documents pointing to his next hideout, he began using the B.O.W. transport trucks to his advantage and sent a Majini into the mines driving a truck carrying the experimental Popokarimu he was planning to sell. Finding that the BSAA had sent in Delta Team to continue where Alpha Team left off, he had the Ndesu B.O.W. released from confinement in Kijuju to remove them from the equation as well.

Mutated Irving

The following afternoon, Irving had not only made his way into the oil field, but had explosives set up around one of the refineries as part of a plan to kill any BSAA survivors. Setting off the charges as he left on a boat, Captain Josh Stone, Redfield and Alomar were able to get to a boat and kept up the chase. Pushed into a corner and unable to shake off his pursuers has he tried to move along the river to Tricell's underground lab, Irving had no choice other than to use a Dominant species Plaga on himself; well aware that the random mutations were irreversible, failing to kill his pursuers in the explosion meant either physical death as a human or the loss of his humanity as a mutant.

Mutated Irving revealed the location of the secret lab before he dies

Ultimately, however, even his mutant form was not enough, and he was fatally wounded. Dying on the deck of his yacht, he revealed the location of the secret lab and accidentally implicated Gionne. Nonetheless, he remained confident that his killers were doomed to share his fate and saw no harm in telling them.