Reuniting the Families

Updated 2 November 2026 · Fan site. Not affiliated with Rockstar Games or Take-Two Interactive.

Reuniting the Families is a Los Santos story mission in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004), given by Sweet. A meeting meant to unite the Families sets at the Jefferson Motel is raided by police and SWAT, and CJ has to shoot his way out, down a helicopter and survive a chase. It leads straight into The Green Sabre, the turning point of the first act.

What happens in Reuniting the Families?

Sweet has decided that the split Families sets need to stand together again if they are going to keep crack sold by the Ballas out of their neighbourhoods. He arranges a sit-down with the other leaders at the Jefferson Motel, and CJ, Big Smoke and Ryder ride along in Smoke's green Greenwood.

The meeting never really starts. The LSPD and a SWAT team storm the motel, Smoke and Ryder slip away, and Sweet is pinned down inside. CJ is handed a shotgun as he goes in and has to clear the corridors to reach his brother. The two make it to the roof, where a police helicopter is circling, and they have to bring it down.

Smoke and Ryder then return with the car. What follows is a long chase through the city with officers on motorbikes and in cruisers. CJ fires from the car with Ryder's AK-47, a rifle that keeps jamming. The pursuit ends when the Greenwood smashes through a Sprunk billboard and lands on a fuel tanker, which blows up. The four get out and go their separate ways.

How do you unlock Reuniting the Families?

The GTA Wiki says the job follows Los Sepulcros in Sweet's chain and only opens once a set of other jobs is done, including Los Sepulcros, House Party, Just Business, Robbing Uncle Sam and the Cesar Vialpando lowrider jobs. Because of that it works as a gate at the end of the first act. The full list sits on our San Andreas missions page.

How do you fail the mission?

The GTA Wiki lists CJ dying, Sweet, Smoke or Ryder dying, or the Greenwood being destroyed. In the chase the car can take a beating, so shooting the motorbike riders early helps keep its health up.

Why is Reuniting the Families famous?

It is one of the loudest set pieces in the Los Santos act, with a rooftop fight, a helicopter and a fireball at the end of a freeway chase. The GTA Wiki points out that the arrival of the motorbike police copies a shot from the film Con Air, and that the idea of rival sets meeting to make peace mirrors the real truce agreed in Watts in 1992. Players also remember Ryder's unreliable rifle, which jams at the worst moments.

Where does the mission fit in the story?

Looking back, the raid is a clue. Someone told the police where the meeting was, and Smoke and Ryder vanish as soon as it begins. In the very next mission, The Green Sabre, CJ learns that both men have sided with the Ballas and Frank Tenpenny, Sweet is shot and arrested, and CJ is sent out of Los Santos. Reuniting the Families is the last time the four friends act as a crew.