Michael De Santa, Franklin, and Trevor Phillips
The De Santa crew was a robbery crew led by Michael DeSanta that committed a series of robberies from the 1980s to 2013. In 2004, as law enforcement came down on the gang, DeSanta arranged for his whole crew to be killed or captured by police and his death be faked, although in 2013 he reunited with former crew member Trevor Phillips, coordinator Lester Crest, and new recruit Franklin Clinton to pull off more heists.
History[]
Michael Townley had been in prison twice by the time he was twenty, and he was involved in running drugs and prostitutes. Eventually, he formed a group of professional robbers, helped by helicopter pilot Trevor Phillips (recruited in 1993), hacker Lester Crest, and his support Brad Snider. The team's first robbery was a small franchise on the outskirts of Flint, Michigan in 1988, ending with Michael himself getting $10,000. During the 1990s, the gang would be an unstoppable menace, robbing several banks and other establishments to get money. However, Townley met a stripper and prostitute named Amanda, and he married her and had two children. It was starting a family that made Michael realize the risk of being killed or captured, showing him what he had to lose. He went soft, and he became hostile with Brad, who considered breaking off with Trevor. In 2004, Michael decided to set up his fellow robbers during a heist in Bismarck, North Dakota in exchange for the FBI giving him a new name and life in Los Angeles with a mansion and lots of money. During the heist, Brad and the driver were shot, and Michael was shot in the chest by Dave Norton, his FBI handler. Michael pretended to die, and Trevor barely escaped after briefly holding a hostage. Trevor believed Michael to be dead, attending his funeral (Brad was buried in the place of Michael, and Trevor believed that Brad was in prison).
Michael lived a lavish lifestyle in his Beverly Hills apartment, but eventually he started running into problems as his spoiled children started fighting and being immature while his wife was having affairs with her tennis coach, yoga coach, and other men. In 2013, Michael re-entered the criminal life when he forced Franklin Clinton, a repo man who had taken his son Jimmy's car from the mansion's garage, to crash the car through the window of his boss Simeon Yetarian's dealership. After this, Michael beat up Simeon for being a fraud, and Franklin lost his job with Simeon. Michael invited Franklin over for a drink some time sarcastically, but Franklin actually came over one time while he was at the pool. It was then that Jimmy called Michael, telling him that he was on Michael's yacht, which was being driven down the highway by Marabunta Grande members to whom Jimmy had offered to sell the boat but later retracted the offer. Michael and Franklin both shot down the gangsters and rescued Jimmy, but their car broke down and the yacht escaped. This was Michael's first murder since 2004.
Later that year, Michael and Franklin took down the stilted deck of a mansion where Amanda's tennis coach was hiding after having sex with her, believing it to be the coach's home. However, they found out from an angry Russian woman there that Martin Madrazo greenlighted them, and Franklin knew that Martin Madrazo was a Mexican cartel boss. They killed several hitmen back at the mansion, but Madrazo arrived and beat up Michael and stole Franklin's ID, telling them that they owed him $2,000,000 for repairs. Michael was forced to return to Lester Crest for help in planning a heist. After doing some jobs for him, he gained his support. They robbed the Vangelico jewlery store, stealing millions of dollars-worth of diamonds and valuables. They paid off Madrazo, and they decided to settle down. However, Trevor Phillips watched the news and heard that the robber had uttered a movie quote that he had used back in 2004 in the Bismarck heist, and Trevor became furious. He tracked Michael down, and he forced him to work with him in an uneasy partnership. They robbed a Merryweather ship at Terminal Island, finding that it contained a nuclear warhead, and Lester forced them to put it back so that they were not on any watchlists.
Later, the crew was forced to do some jobs for the FBI agent Steve Haines, although they were able to profit off of their heist of the Blaine County Savings Bank in Paleto Bay, Blaine County. They went on to use the money to plan the heist of the Union Depository, and although the group nearly broke apart due to the discovery of Brad's death and Devin Weston and Haines asking Franklin to kill his friends, they decided to do the heist. They stole $200,000,000 in gold bricks, and they settled down. Soon after, they came under heat from the FBI and Merryweather, so they lured them into an ambush at a Signal Hill foundry before taking out Haines, Weston, and their other enemies Harold Joseph and Wei Cheng. After teaming up to push Weston off of a cliff (Weston was in his car's trunk, trapped), they agreed that they would stop working together as robbers, but they would remain friends. The crew went their separate ways, investing in properties and committing crimes on their own, but not doing any scores.
Members[]
- Michael DeSanta
- Trevor Phillips
- Franklin Clinton
- Ron Jakowski
- Brad Snider (+)
- Martin Crowley (+)
- Rickie Lukens
- Christian Feltz
- Paige Harris
- Lester Crest
- Gustavo Mota
- Hugh Welsh
- Norm Richards
- Daryl Johns
- Karl Abolaji
- Patrick McReary
- Chef
- Eddie Toh
- Taliana Martinez
- Karim Denz