The Los Santos Connection is a mission in Grand Theft Auto Online given to the player by Martin Madrazo. It is available for 1 to 6 players.
Overview
The team has to clear out several enemies and access the vehicle's GPS marked on the map. Once all guards are dead, two enemy Grangers arrive in an effort to stop the players.
The GPS will take the team to a depot in El Burro Heights, attracting chasers on the way. Upon arrival they must hack a laptop in order to find the supplier of their drugs, but the site is protected by many enemies. More enemies will arrive over time in Grangers.
After the laptop is hacked, the team must head to a hangar at Los Santos Airport. The team will be chased by a few more Grangers on the way to the airport. After arriving at the hangar, the team will discover many more enemies inside. The drugs will be in a loft in the west corner of the hangar. Two more enemies can be found there. Either before or after obtaining the drugs, the team has to destroy the crew's vehicles inside the hangar, which include several vans and two airplanes. After destroying the vehicles and getting the drugs, more enemies will come in to kill the team, including a Buzzard.
The team then needs to kill the supplier who flees in a jet provided that all targeted vehicles are destroyed. An enemy Buzzard will also come to attack the team. Multiple Buzzards can be found just outside the hangar to take out the enemy Buzzard and the supplier. Once the supplier is dead, only one member of the team needs to go to Madrazo's house to complete the job.
As of the Lowrider Update, the Enemy Buzzard has been removed, and one of the Buzzards outside of the hanger is gone as well. Infinitely re-spawning enemies are also removed, making the mission substantially easier.
Mission objectives
- Ambush the drug deal.
- Check the vehicle's GPS.
- Go to the depot in El Burro Heights.
- Hack the laptop to trace the supplier.
- Go to the hangar at LSI Airport.
- Steal the coke.
- Destroy the crew's vehicles.
- Take out the supplier.
- Go to Madrazo's house.
Tips
- The long, green crates found at each of the locations in the mission contain packets of drugs. Each crate contains two to three packets and collecting them gives $500 per packet. Collecting the drugs will substantially increase the profit from completing the mission. Any money gained from collecting the packets will also be retained even if the mission is subsequently failed. The crates can be destroyed and their contents revealed by ramming them with a car or use firearms.
- Near the laptop that has to be hacked, there is an open green shipping container containing a Health pack. It will respawn, useful in the case that multiple team members need health. There is also Body armor near the coke in the airport hangar and Sticky Bombs.
- Heavily armed or armored vehicles like the Technical, the Armoured Kuruma, Insurgent Truck, or even the Rhino Tank can make this mission significantly easier. The Rhino Tank is the best due to it's significant ballistic weapon resistance that can stand the crew's attacks and can be used to blow up all the crew's vehicles, destroy the crew, and even shoot down the plane as it takes off.
- The enemy Buzzard can be blown up before stealing the coke at LSX, making the journey to Madrazo's house a lot easier. The same helicopter can also be stolen and used to clear the hangar and to destroy the enemy vehicles. Beware that if the Buzzard is empty when the Coke is destroyed/Collected, an enemy will spawn inside and operate it unless a player is already inside it, which will prevent that Pilot from spawning.
- The supplier's jet can also be destroyed while parked on the runway prior to attacking the hangar, avoiding any need to chase it after collecting the coke.
- It is highly recommended to destroy the crew's vehicles after the reinforcements (that arrive after coke is collected) are all eliminated, so the players would not miss the enemy jet, or alternatively, destroy the jet first
- After the Heists Update, destroying the coke in the hangar is no longer a failure condition for the mission, however the payout may be reduced slightly. Destroying the Coke skips the mission to the phase where the crew's vehicles must be destroyed and their reinforcements spawn.
Trivia
- The abundance of drugs in crates throughout the mission makes the theft of the single box of coke upstairs in the airport hanger — one of the mission's objectives — seem a little redundant.
- The mission's name is likely a reference to the film The French Connection, which concerns the international drug trade. It is also similar to the mission The Puerto Rican Connection from Grand Theft Auto IV, which was likewise an homage to the film.
- The mission payout re-balancing in Patch 1.16 has made this mission more worthwhile as the length of time taken to finish this mission is long enough for a substantial payout.
- There is a Shamal near Devin Weston's hangar that can be flown, though it does not play any part of the mission.
- The Buzzards at the airport will NOT spawn until the laptop is successfully hacked.
- There is a deleted mission called "Lines of Coke" that has very similar objectives to this mission, and may have been a prototype of this mission.
- Wanted level is disabled for the duration of the mission.
- Strangely, there are enemies behind the hangar, despite that players would never go there, nor they can kill the player.
- The Buzzard that attacks the players after the latter has took the coke is actually found on a helipad at the airport and is empty until coke is collected. Should it be occupied by another player beforehand, the pilot will not spawn. It can also be destroyed before collecting the coke and will not appear if done so.
- If the coke was destroyed before collection, the reinforcements will still spawn.
- For some reason, while the supplier would not spawn if a player occupied the jet after the coke is collected/destroyed and all enemy vehicles destroyed, the jet still has to be destroyed.