Ballas

The Ballas is an Afro-American street gang that are the primary enemy of the Grove Street Families and the most influential gang in Los Santos, having been around since the 1970s. A the beginning of the game, they are the most powerful street gang in Los Santos. The gang is mostly involved in drug dealing, gang banging, prostitution, arms dealing, vandalism, degeneracy, and mainly in the crack cocaine trade.

The Ballas are rivals with the Grove Street Families and Varrios Los Aztecas, and have ties with the Los Santos Vagos, the San Fierro Rifa, and the Loco Syndicate for narcotics, and the Russian Mafia for weapons. The Ballas also collaborate with C.R.A.S.H.. In addition, Big Smoke defects against the GSF to lead the Ballas with his lieutenant Ryder. Unlike the GSF, the Ballas have no reservations about making money by selling drugs; the spread of crack cocaine into the Grove Street community is part of their strategy to wipe the GSF out.

During a brief of the game, after Sean "Sweet" Johnson was gunned down and arrested, the Ballas controlled the streets of Los Santos. They control the influence of the Families by using crack cocaine to turn GSF members into hopeless addicts totally dependent on them. However, following the release of Sweet from prision and the return of Carl Johnson, the Grove Street Families dominate the Ballas. The Ballas' Crack Palace is heavily demolished by Officer Frank Tenpenny, resulting in significantly reduced the influence by the Ballas in Los Santos.

Appearance
Members of the Ballas are seen wearing purple bandanas, black skullcaps, knee high socks and flip-flop sandals, khaki pants and dark blue chore coats.

Weapons
The gang mostly use the 9mm pistol and Micro-SMG as their primary weapons when patroling the streets of Los Santos. The gang has other weapons, which they only use when the player is attempting to take over their turf. These weapons include AK-47s and SMGs.

Gang Cars
The Ballas only have two gang cars, the Tahoma and the Majestic. The Tahoma is a lowrider and sometimes appears with hydraulics. In missions, the gang is sometimes seen driving Voodoos. On one very important occasion the Ballas use a gree Sabre to try and murder Sweet, but instead end up killing his mother Beverly Johnson. The Ballas' default radio station is Bounce FM.

Trivia

 * It is revealed by Sweet in the mission Big Smoke that the Temple Drive set was actually part of GSF, however during Carl's absence, they became a set in the Ballas.
 * This may be a play on ball less since they are pronounced the same way. However, the name may also be a reference to the word "baller", which is a gangster who has become a much more organized criminal, which can definitely be applied to the Ballas.
 * Ballas means "Bullets" in Portuguese and Spanish.