Big Smoke's Alliance is a major topic in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. It is subject to a vague mystery in the game.
Smoke's Alliance with Tenpenny[]
General viewpoint of the alliance[]
Big Smoke was a loyal member of Grove Street Families since the earliest times. However, as time passed and more significantly, after the departure of Carl Johnson to Liberty City, Big Smoke secretly turned his back on the families by allying with the corrupt officer, Tenpenny. The generally accepted view is derived from the cutscene in The Introduction. During the scene, it is seen that Big Smoke wanted to take over the town and money with help from C.R.A.S.H. who had their own motives by giving an uprise to drug trade within all Los Santos gangs and primarily Grove Street Families. Smoke was sought for this plan since Sweet, the spearhead of the families was unwilling to sell or allow drugs in the gang due to its destructive influence. Despite Smoke's numerous attempts to convince Sweet, he failed after which he either intimated or convinced Ryder into his alliance. Ballas were then called by C.R.A.S.H. to assassinate Sweet. Unfortunately, the Ballas ended up shooting Beverly Johnson, instead of Sweet. However, this is the general view with regards to Big Smoke's alliance with the C.R.A.S.H. Myth hunters and theorists believe in an entirely different viewpoint.
“ | Frank Tenpenny: I knew that fat fuck would see it our way. Eddie Pulaski: Yeah, always do, once they understand the choices we're offering. Say Frank, what the hell we gonna do about this Hernandez coming on board with us? |
” |
–Tenpenny and Pulaski on Big Smoke's greed, and how willing he is to join their alliance. The quote is regarded as evidence to general claims that Big Smoke wasn't intimated, but was instead greedy and traitorous |
Theorists viewpoint of the alliance[]
According to theorists and myth hunters, Big Smoke was intimated by the C.R.A.S.H. and forced to contribute to their drug trade in the city. The evidence presented by them is in The Introduction cutscene. In the scene, C.R.A.S.H. is seen threatening Big Smoke on the phone call after he fails to convince Sweet to join hands in the drug trade, Tenpenny speaks that Big Smoke has to let go of his gang loyalty principles and lean towards money. After the talk, Big Smoke didn't want to kill Sweet by himself due to his long childhood relationship with Sweet, so he hired Ballas to do the job who ended up killing Beverly Johnson instead. This is, therefore, the view of the theorists, portraying Smoke as a person caught between loyalty, intimidation cousin being the informant.
Theorists finally conclude their theory by pointing out the fact that Cesar passes all the secret information about the alliance to Carl Johnson because of their connection with Kendl and because of the connection, Cesar finally lets it go out of the organization secretly, burying his past behind.
License plate analysis[]
Another piece of evidence includes Big Smoke's Glendale and his number plate. Big Smoke is known to own a Glendale, which is also used by the Aztecas gang. Smoke's license plate is a subject of mystery as well. According to a group of theorists his license plate reads either of the following;
- A2TMFK: Meaning a "two time motherfucker", a reference to his betrayal of the Grove Street Families and defection to the Ballas. This is the widely accepted version.
- "A to the mother fuckin' K": a reference to a Cypress Hill song; another one of their songs appears on Radio Los Santos.
- AZTEK: Meaning "AZTEC", a reference to Aztecas gang. A major drawback to the theory is that the theorists believing in this particular set of letters, leave out the middle letter "M" without any explanation.