College student Jason Collins is persuaded to allow his friend Craig to ship drugs to his house. Jason signs for the package which contains pills and a tracking device. Drug Enforcement Agency officers break into the house; Jason flees but is chased down and arrested by Agent Cooper.
While at a barbecue, John Matthews, Jason's estranged father and owner of a construction company, is called by his ex-wife Sylvie about Jason being arrested. John and Sylvie meet with an investigator who says that Craig set Jason up to reduce his own sentence. Jason's charges carry a minimum of 10 years in prison. He is pressured to inform on one of his own friends to reduce his own sentence.
Using his connections, John arranges to meet with local US Attorney Joanne Keeghan, who is running a very aggressive anti-drug campaign. Keeghan agrees to reduce Jason's sentence if John will inform on a drug dealer.
Cooper leads a task force which will monitor any dealings John arranges to use as evidence for an arrest. John searches through his employee records and finds that Daniel James, a new employee, has two prior distribution convictions. Daniel is currently leading a clean life to avoid a third strike. John offers $20,000 if Daniel will simply introduce him to a dealer; Daniel agrees, though he is unaware that John is acting as an informant.
Daniel introduces John to Malik, an extremely dangerous, high-ranking local drug dealer, who also has two strikes. Explaining that his construction business cannot stay afloat in the current economy without a supplement to its revenues, John offers to run nearly limitless amounts of drugs at almost zero risk in his freight trucks. Malik agrees under the condition that John and Daniel drive the initial run themselves.
John and Agent Cooper arrange for several wire taps. John drives to the pick-up point near the Mexican border when a rival gang ambushes the pick-up, but John escapes, impressing cartel kingpin Pintera, whose men fight off the hijackers. John then makes the deal, delivering the drugs to Malik while under surveillance by Cooper. Malik mentions a meeting with cartel members higher than himself. Cooper, hoping to catch the higher priority targets, does not move to arrest Malik as agreed.
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