Edgardo Prudencio Escarpa (エドゥガルド・プルデンシオ・エスカルパ Edugarudo Purudenshio Esukarupa), better known by his nickname Gris el Tigres (グリス・エル・ティグリス Gurisu eru Tigurisu, Spanish for "The Gray Tiger") is the founder and leader of Los Soldados, a Mexican cartel made up of ex-soldiers of the Mexican military.

Gris is a young Hispanic man with a skinny but athletic build, tan skin, and black hair styled in a fade cut. He has a variety of tattoos, including an Aztec sun symbol on the front of his throat, the Spanish word "Honor" across his clavical bones, the Spanish phrase "Oración para atraer" (Spanish for "prayer to attract") on his upper back, a small tattoo of Our Lady of Guadalupe on his left pectoral, an Aztec warrior holding a chimalli on his back right shoulder, a person holding a flag on his front right deltoid muscle, and the headshot of a Mexican woman on his lower abdomen. He wears a dark-colored cattleman hat with a longhorn skull symbol on the front crown, a golden chain necklace, a light-brown fringe jacket over a purple Western shirt, a bracelet on his left wrist, a brown belt, black skinny jeans, and light-brown leather shoes. He carries a Taurus revolver for a weapon.

Gris is a confident and charismatic individual whose leadership has attracted a substantial following of friends and his fellow ex-soldiers. With his skills from being a former soldier, Gris is an excellent strategist. Having proclaimed on several occasions that he shows no mercy, he is a brutal gangster who does not hesitate to carry out torture and executions, particularly killing people by decapitation. Despite his murderous attitude, he once admitted that there has never been a time where he has not felt scared. Gris often borrows Spanish words when speaking in English. His aversion to the purported misuse of God's name, as well as his tattoos of a prayer and Our Lady of Guadalupe, indicate a Christian background.

Born under the real name Edgardo Prudencio Escarpa, he grew up in Cananea, a poor mining town in Sonora, Mexico. Doing well in school and his social life, Gris gained admiration from his friends with his sharpness and charisma. In addition to making a name for himself on his local soccer team in middle school, he earned the chance to be on Mexico's Olympic boxing team. However, rather than going to college, he enlisted in the Mexican military, with this decision allegedly being because his mentor was killed by terrorists. During his time in the military, he was selected for the Mexican Army's special forces unit known as the Grupo Aeromóvil de Fuerzas Especiales (GAFE), even studying anti-guerrilla warfare tactics at the U.S. Army's School of the Americas. His unit once engaged in guerrilla warfare in Guatemala as one of their missions.

In a short period, his path into the criminal world began as response to his hometown being threatened by violence and chaos after the fall of the Salinas administration in 1994. Furthermore, Cananea's residents were left without social power due to the rule of the cartels and the local police, the latter of whom were bribed by the mafias. Feeling betrayed by his government and not wanting his hometown to fall into disarray, Gris left the military and created a following by gathering his hometown friends and his own subordinates from his time in the army. Additionally, another reason that Gris was disillusioned with the military was that they supposedly prevented him from using his gained expertise to its full potential. Subsequently, he modeled his vigilante group after Balalaika's ex-military forces in Roanapur, also relating to her shared background of being a former soldier cast aside by her government.

Swearing to protect Cananea, Gris showed no mercy to the mafias which his forces swiftly dispatched of. As a result, other adjacent towns began asking for Gris's help, with many people joining this new group known as Los Soldados (Spanish for "The Soldiers"), nicknamed Los Eses (Spanish for "The Ss"). Despite the inner support, the vigilantes' finances from the townspeople were not enough, so Gris began to enforce things like protection fees, road tolls and bribery. At that point, the ex-soldier began to engage in drug trafficking, though he was still somewhat viewed as a hero by locals since he saved the town from cartels, fixed infrastructure and guaranteed everyone jobs. Furthermore, the vigilantes had a grudge against a Canadian mining company that acquired mining rights in the city, though the company could not operate the mines since they angered Los Soldados by attempting to purchase the mines for a cheap price.

At the same time, in Sonora, the Baja California-based Tecate Cartel was gaining strength in the state. This rival cartel mainly encroached on the already existing mafia territory of the Nuevo Laredo Cartel, whose leader Rodrigo Guerrera felt that Gris's forces could put a stop to the Tecate Cartel. Guerrera also believed that they could fight the Guadalajara Cartel, whose leader's recent death was the catalyst for the cartel wars in the first place. Contacting the ex-soldier, Guerrera informed Gris that Los Eses' interests would be recognized by the cartel and they would have access to heroin from the Sierra Madre Occidental's highlands if he agreed to stop the Tecate Cartel's encroachment into Sonora. Knowing that he could not reject the offer since it would mean he had to fight two cartels, the ex-soldier accepted Nuevo Laredo's conditions.

While Gris had his forces acting as a shield for the Nuevo Laredo Cartel, the latter cartel pressured Vasily Krivchenko of Hotel Moscow to stop doing business with other cartels and begin providing arms and money laundering via Russian financial institutions. Because of the bad look for Hotel Moscow's reputation, their leaders brought in the Vysotniki to fight Los Eses. In the ensuing war, which came to be called the Cananea–California conflict, Balalaika sent a unit led by Maskaev to combat Gris's forces. Although the Russians achieved localized victories, the Mexicans outnumbered them and made them suffer several casualties. When the Vysotniki unit withdrew from the region, Los Soldados took the opportunity to wipe out the rest of the Guadalajara Cartel's successors, therefore ridding of Hotel Moscow's ally. Because of the hits the Vysotniki inflicted on his syndicate, Gris wanted revenge against the Russians on behalf of his men, so he requested Krivchenko's head to make up for the fatalities. Not wanting to be killed, Krivchenko fled to Roanapur, Thailand to seek refuge.

Also having resentment toward Hotel Moscow, the Nuevo Laredo Cartel had their Thai branch leader Fernando Lobos set up a meeting with Balalaika to settle their feud and come to a resolution. Accordingly, Gris and his subordinates also accompanied him to Roanapur. At the Council meeting, Gris entered The Golden Swingin Night Club and directly addressed Balalaika upon sitting down. He asserted that despite his rivalry with Hotel Moscow, he respected her greatly and related to her background of an ex-soldier cast aside by her government. Nonetheless, Gris explained that he was not holding back against her group and proclaimed he would crush her forces. Lobos warned him to watch his mouth, claiming he was the authority in Roanapur. Vehemently disagreeing with Lobos's desire to come to an agreement, Gris exclaimed that they could not relax around their enemy as long as they remained allied with the Nuevo Laredo Cartel.

Restating that Hotel Moscow's willingness to talk was not enough to settle their feud, he claimed that back in Mexico, those who attempted to negotiate with their enemy get deceived and consequently murdered. Lobos was shocked at his words, including Gris emphasizing that he would not budge on forgiving what Hotel Moscow and the Guadalajara Cartel did to his syndicate in Cananea. Addressing Balalaika, he stated that appropriate actions had to be taken to end a conflict, elaborating that his men did not want Krivchenko remaining alive. Warning her not to play dumb, he affirmed that he came to Roanapur to kill Krivchenko to satisfy the men of Los Eses. Unfazed, she asked what he would do if she refused his request, to which Gris answered that it would be war between them. The Russian leader laughed and reciprocated the feeling that she too was not satisfied with their conclusion in California.

Interrupting them, Rock, attending the meeting as an observer of the Council, spoke up and proposed a peace plan wherein the Nuevo Laredo Cartel would receive the portion of the Colombian Cartel's lost territory that Hotel Moscow was to receive. Whereas Mister Chang and Ronnie the Jaws accepted the idea, Balalaika was irked, and Gris retorted to both Rock and Lobos that he did not want peace but rather, Krivchenko's head. Though Chang warned the young leader that he could not do as he pleased in Roanapur, the ex-soldier proclaimed that his status did not mean anything to him and his men. Balalaika smiled and claimed that he essentially forfeited his life, but Gris decided to leave and confidently told the Council that as a gangster, he would not tolerate disrespect and said he welcomed anyone to try and stop him. Rock pleaded with him to reconsider, but Gris grinned and joked that he looked forward to the fighting.

That night, Gris returned to his hideout in the city and had intercourse with his girlfriend Marie. When they woke up the next morning, he informed her about the Council rejecting his terms of peace. Asked if he was scared, Gris admitted he was never not afraid, but she hugged and assured him that they had always overcome everything. Thankful for her support, he invited her to come with him to their hangout in an adjacent room to have a meal with his subordinates and comrades. Addressing all of his men, Gris explicated to them that Hotel Moscow rejected his request to take Krivchenko's head and therefore they would finish the war they started against the Russians in California. Everyone listening was invigorated by his declaration and agreed to prepare for various attacks on Hotel Moscow and their businesses.

As the hits on the Russians commenced, Gris recorded a video directly addressed to Balalaika and the Vysotniki in which he repeated yet again that he did not want their territory or money, merely Krivchenko's life. He additionally taunted her by claiming to know everything about her operations and the status of her security, warning the Russians not to take him lightly by using his experience of fighting a guerrilla war in Guatemala as an example. Nevertheless, Gris concluded that the feud between them would stop once his request was fulfilled, joking that he would love to have a meal with her and talk about their military ventures. Once he recorded the video and put it on a DVD, he arranged for his men to intentionally leave the DVD behind at the scene of one of their escapes. With his message delivered and many of Hotel Moscow's locations having been hit, Gris had Rocca and his men go to Lobos's front business in town to flush him out. As the men of Los Eses successfully killed the various Nuevo Laredo gangsters, Gris pulled up to the wounded Lobos outside and forced him into his personal vehicle.

Consequently, Gris had Lobos executed by beheading and had his men deliver the severed head to the Bougainvillea Trade Company as another threat to the Vysotniki. Wanting Hotel Moscow's local funds to be cut off, he had Rocca's squad attack the casino Chornui Mall to steal the money from their casino vaults. During the operation, Rock deliberately stayed in the vault room to arrange a meeting with Gris, but Rocca only agreed to at least bring him along alive. As the Roanapur City Police chased the fleeing Mexicans in their vehicles, Gris showed up to ambush the pursuing cops, driving next to one police car and shooting an officer in the head. Near him, Eda and Revy tailed Gris's path to keep tabs on Rock's location.