The Bureau Raid

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

The Bureau Raid is a story heist in Grand Theft Auto V (2013) in which Michael De Santa and Franklin Clinton break into the FIB headquarters in Los Santos on agent Steve Haines's orders. You either start a fire and walk in as firefighters, or parachute onto the roof from a helicopter. gta.wiki says the data being copied includes the bureau's files on the protagonists' own crimes.

What is The Bureau Raid in GTA V?

The Bureau Raid is the heist in which the crew of Grand Theft Auto V turns on the FIB itself. For much of the story, agents Steve Haines and Dave Norton have been using Michael and his friends for their own ends. Now under scrutiny himself, Haines sends Michael and Franklin into the bureau's tower in Pillbox Hill so that the evidence against him on its servers can be wiped, according to Wikipedia. It is one of the six story heists on our GTA heists page, and it follows The Paleto Score in the story.

gta.wiki notes that if you arrive as Michael, the briefing at Lester Crest's garment factory shows Lester getting ready to burn it down, since after this raid the crew will need a new base.

What are the covert and roof approaches?

The approach is picked in the planning mission Architect's Plans. gta.wiki describes them as follows:

How does the covert approach play?

Michael gets past the front desk with a borrowed ID and goes up to an office floor, where he has to clean marked spots on the floor with a mop and bucket while planting charges in a locker and a washroom. Back outside he sets them off by phone. Franklin then drives the stolen fire engine to the burning tower, and the crew go up through the smoke with limited air to reach the server room, blow its door and take the drive. On the way out the upper floors start to give way, and gta.wiki says a weak gunman can die in a blast during the escape.

How does the roof approach play?

In this version the team take a helicopter from the NOOSE headquarters near the Tataviam Mountains late at night, and Michael flies it to the drop point. The crew jump, land on the FIB tower and cut their way in. Michael opens the server room with explosives and runs a hacking sequence on a computer while the hacker in the crew helps, or struggles if they are unskilled. Security teams attack during the download, and a military helicopter hits the crew's own chopper, which crashes into the building. The team then fight down through the damaged floors and rappel to the street.

How much does The Bureau Raid pay?

gta.wiki gives Franklin's share as between $149,392 and $242,346, depending on choices made. Finishing the heist earns The Government Gimps achievement and unlocks The Wrap Up and Abandonment Issues. Those missions lead into the last act of the game and the decision covered in our GTA V endings article.

Which approach is canon?

gta.wiki argues that the roof version is the one the story assumes. In a later mission Lester talks about wiping the files on all three protagonists, which only happens on the roof route. Haines's anger in The Wrap Up also fits better if his pilot died and his files were erased, and the damage left on the building looks more like a helicopter crash than planted bombs.

Trivia

According to gta.wiki, the game files show an earlier name, The Agency Heist, which suggests the target was once the IAA rather than the FIB. Some leftover text in the covert setup still refers to the Agency building. The same page links the burning tower to the disaster film The Towering Inferno and to Die Hard. In-game news first reports a data theft, then later calls it a false alarm.