Trevor Philips (1968-) is a Canadian arms and meth trafficker who operated out of Imperial County, California during the 2010s. Philips was known to be a sociopath who murdered or tortured people on impulse, and he frequently acted irrationally. He headed Trevor Philips Enterprises, a small arms and drug syndicate based out of his Desert Shores trailer, and he engaged in gang wars with The Lost MC, Los Varrios Aztecas, the O'Neil Brothers, and the Wei Cheng Triad from 2013 to 2017, while also taking part in various heists with Michael De Santa, Brad Snider, and Franklin Clinton from the 1990s until 2013.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Philips during the 2004 Bismarck bank robbery
Trevor Philips was born in Canada, near the United States border, in 1968. His father was an abusive alcoholic who abandoned Philips in a shopping mall when he was young, and his mother was a prostitute who was overbearing and emotionally abusive. Philips had a rough childhood, growing up in five states, two countries, fourteen different homes, eight fathers, three care homes, and two correctional facilities; he was known to be mentally unstable as a youth, and he engaged in several crimes.
Having dropped out of school, Philips became known as a very troubled child; Philips sodomized a hockey instructor with a hockey stick, strangled a clarinet player with a clarinet, and burnt down the shopping mall where he had been abandoned, and he killed numerous animals and drifters during the early years of his life.
He was rejected from the Royal Canadian Air Force a few days before earning his wings due to his psychological issues, and he became a drifter and a petty criminal.
Working with Michael Townley[]
He never committed any serious crimes until he met Michael Townley in 1988, who paid him to assist him with smuggling goods across the border. Philips saved Townley’s life on one occasion, and they began a chagrined relationship and a criminal partnership.
One time, Philips was arrested after he robbed a check-cashing clerk who knew him, and he served four months of a six-month term in prison. Eventually, Townley married a stripper named Amanda, and he had two children: Jimmy and Tracey. Townley sought to settle down with his family, causing him to "go soft". Around the same time, Philips had partnered with criminal Brad Snider, and Philips, Snider, and Townley carried out heists with the help of Lester Crest.
In 2004, Townley secretly arranged for a heist in Bismarck, North Dakota to be ambushed by the police in exchange for him being given a new name, a new life, and a mansion in Beverly Hills, and Philips was supposed to die. However, FBI sniper Dave Norton accidentally killed Snider instead, and he pretended to shoot Townley; Philips escaped. The FBI buried Snider in Townley's place, gave Michael the new identity of "Michael De Santa", and let him settle down in a nice Los Angeles mansion. Philips mourned Townley's loss, and he managed to evade the feds for years before settling down in Desert Shores in southern California's Imperial County, an off-the-grid location.
Trevor Philips Enterprises[]
Philips and Slugs Piombino
Philips lived in a trailer in Sandy Shores for years, and he befriended the paranoid conspiracy theorist Ron Jakowski, the Juggalo Wade Hebert, and the meth cook Chef. They co-founded Trevor Philips Enterprises, an arms and drug syndicate that trafficked firearms and crystal meth through Imperial County. Philips developed rivalries with The Lost MC outlaw motorcycle club, the Los Varrios Aztecas Mexican gang, and the redneck O'Neil Brothers, and he hired criminals such as Slugs Piombino to take out the opposition and steal drugs from them. In 2013, Philips took over the Bakersfield airfield from The Lost MC and blew up their trailer park in Slab City, and he also weakened the Aztecas by taking out their leader Ortega and by killing a small army of Azteca hitmen at his meth lab. Philips nearly wiped out the O'Neil Brothers at their ranch, but the last three would have to be tracked down to the Bixby Creek before they were killed.
Return to heists[]
In 2013, Philips discovered that Townley was still alive under the assumed name "Michael De Santa" and was living in Los Angeles, and Philips headed to Los Angeles to confront his old friend. Philips moved in with his "friend" Floyd Hebert in Venice Beach, taking over his apartment and abusing Floyd.
Philips met with De Santa and decided to partner with him again, although he was suspicious about his role in possibly engineering the ambush of the Bismarck robbers and concealing Snider's death.
Philips helped De Santa with his FBI jobs, being entrapped into working for Steve Haines; Philips took part in the rescue of Ferdinand Kerimov, robbery of the Morro Bay savings bank, an armored car attack, and a raid on a CIA lab, usually being used as a pilot. Philips and De Santa also stirred up trouble with the Merryweather private security company, as the heist crew blew up a Merryweather tanker and briefly stole an experimental superweapon, derailed a Merryweather-guarded train in order to bribe the hostile Mexican crime lord Martin Madrazo and attempted to hijack a Merryweather-guarded cargo plane.
The FBI eventually decided that Philips was a liability, especially after he discovered Snider's death and vexed Merryweather. De Santa persuaded Philips to stick with him for "the big one" - the robbery of the Union Depository - and a reluctant Philips decided to help him with the last heist, despite his wishing for De Santa to be killed. Philips assisted with the robbery, and he made off with $250,000,000, as did the others.
Philips then assisted De Santa and his protégé Franklin Clinton with tying up loose ends, namely killing Philips' Wei Cheng Triad rivals, the FBI agent Steve Haines, The Families OG Harold Joseph, and Merryweather shareholder and prominent businessman Devin Weston. Afterward, the three parted as friends, lying low.
Aftermath[]
By 2021, Philips still operated TPI and kept in regular contact with Clinton and De Santa, though he was turned away by Clinton's employee when he showed up to the F. Clinton & Partner's building. Currently, Philips no longer resides in Desert Shores.