Leone Family

Updated 29 October 2026 · Fan site. Not affiliated with Rockstar Games or Take-Two Interactive.

The Leone family is the Italian-American Mafia family that runs much of Portland in Liberty City. Led by Don Salvatore Leone, it gives Claude his first real work in Grand Theft Auto III (2001) before turning on him. The prequel Liberty City Stories (2005) shows its rise to the top in 1998 through Toni Cipriani.

Who are the Leone family in GTA?

The Leones are a crime family with roots in Sicily who operate out of Portland, the industrial island of Liberty City in the 3D era of the series. They are one of three Mafia families in the city, alongside the Forellis and the Sindaccos. In every game where they appear, the family is shown through the people working for it rather than from the top down, which is why it feels different in each story.

The family car, according to GTA Wiki, is a black Sentinel saloon, often called the Mafia Sentinel.

Who are the main members?

Salvatore Leone is the Don. GTA Wiki says he was born in Palermo, took control of the family in the mid-1980s, and was voiced by Frank Vincent. Joey Leone is his son, a mechanic with his own garage, voiced by Michael Rapaport. Toni Cipriani is a made man who gives out jobs from his mother's restaurant in GTA III and later stars in his own game. Maria Latore is Salvatore's wife, who met him in Las Venturas. Vincenzo "Lucky" Cilli is a captain who resents Toni.

What role do the Leones play in GTA III?

Grand Theft Auto III launched on the PlayStation 2 in North America on 23 October 2001. Its silent lead, Claude, escapes custody with the explosives expert 8-Ball, who then puts him in touch with the Leones. Claude meets Joey first. According to GTA Wiki, Joey's opening job has Claude kill Mike Forelli with a car bomb, and later jobs include getting rid of a body and driving the getaway car for a robbery. Joey also passes him on to Toni, who sends him against the Triads.

Wikipedia's plot summary says Claude's work helps the family beat the Triads and wins Salvatore's trust. Salvatore then has him wreck the Colombian Cartel's floating drug lab. The friendship ends badly. Maria had told her husband she was seeing Claude, simply to make him jealous, and Salvatore sets a trap: a car rigged to explode. Maria warns Claude in time.

Claude flees to Staunton Island with Maria and the Yakuza leader Asuka Kasen. To prove he has cut ties with the Mafia, he shoots Salvatore in the mission Sayonara Salvatore. From that point Leone gunmen attack him on sight in Portland. GTA Wiki says Joey's fate after his father's death is not known.

Joey's last scene comes in the mission Salvatore's Called a Meeting. GTA Wiki notes that his father uses the occasion to tell him to settle down and find a wife, and Joey says he is working on it.

How did the Leones take over Liberty City?

That story is told in Liberty City Stories, released on the PSP on 25 October 2005 and on the PS2 on 6 June 2006 in North America. It is set in 1998. Toni returns after four years abroad and is placed under Vincenzo, who tries to have him killed. Toni survives and kills him instead.

According to Wikipedia, the Leones then take ground from the Sindaccos and Forellis. Toni kills the Sindacco boss Paulie and assassinates the mayor, Roger Hole, who was secretly in the Forellis' pocket. Salvatore is arrested along the way, but the real plotter turns out to be Massimo Torini of the Sicilian Mafia, working for a Leone elder known as Uncle Leone. Toni and Salvatore kill Torini, Uncle Leone drops his plans, and the Leones end the year as the strongest family in the city. Salvatore makes Toni a caporegime.

The war leaves scars on the city. GTA Wiki says the Fort Staunton district is destroyed during it, and that the van of explosives used for the job was loaded at 8-Ball's garage in Pike Creek. By the end of 1998 the Sicilian invasion has been called off and the rival families are weakened, which sets up the Liberty City that players first saw in GTA III.

Are the Leones in GTA Advance and San Andreas?

Yes, in smaller roles. Grand Theft Auto Advance (2004) is set in Liberty City in 2000. Its hero, Mike, and his partner Vinnie start out as low-level errand boys taking orders from Mafia members at Momma's Restaurante, according to GTA Wiki. The same source says the Leones still controlled Portland Harbor that year and used its docks for smuggling.

In San Andreas, set in 1992, Salvatore appears in cutscenes in Las Venturas. GTA Wiki says the Leones, Sindaccos and Forellis shared Caligula's casino, with Salvatore putting $5 million into a one-third stake. Carl Johnson later robs the casino for the Triads.

The casino deal also explains Maria. GTA Wiki says Salvatore met her in Las Venturas and that she later became his wife. He placed the lawyer Ken Rosenberg in charge of running Caligula's for the families, and the wiki adds that he threatened CJ after the robbery but never acted on it.