Medellín, Colombia, March 2015. Salvatore Spanò is a 40-year-old man who has spent the last seven years working for the Anti-Mafia Investigation Department. He is seen talking with three Colombian drug traffickers in the living room of a suburban mansion. He has infiltrated as an intermediary on behalf of a well-known ‘Ndrangheta family and has taken part in negotiating the sale of 50 kilos of cocaine. However, someone discovered his true identity and only a lucky circumstance allowes Spanò to save his life.

Reggio Calabria, 2017. At a police checkpoint, Spanò senses that the driver of a Fiat Tipo automobile is hiding something. He lets him go and follows him to Apulia, where the man is arrested along with his contacts. Three kilos of cocaine are found in the automobile. Commissioner Mancuso considers this an exemplary operation. Spanò, on the other hand, is convinced that what they have seized is only a tiny part of the drug shipment, which he believes is still hidden somewhere in southern Calabria.

Further investigations allow the reconstruction of the links that the ‘Ndrangheta has established with Colombian drug cartels, thus becoming the control room for the sorting of cocaine in Italy and the whole of Europe. To ensure a safer route, the notorious Calabrian boss Vincenzo Callipari made a deal with some members of the Apulian Mafia (Sacra Corona Unita). Drugs destined for European countries are shipped from Calabria to Apulia, where they are transported through less controlled routes with the help of the Loiacono family and the Albanian Mafia.

After months of stalking and wiretapping, the break finally comes. The DIA team discovers some kind of cipher. It appears to be a communication pattern devised by ‘Ndrangheta bosses and their Colombian counterparts at a summit in Calabria. It is a complex combination of letters and numbers transmitted via BlackBerry phones specially modified to work without a SIM: the Narco Code.  It turns out that drug traffickers move large quantities of drugs on cruise ships. The strategy is as simple as it is ingenious.  A few hundred yards from shore, semi-floating cubes about a dozen inches in size are thrown into the sea and towed about a hundred yards out by almost invisible fishing lines. These are later retrieved by criminals aboard high-speed inflatable boats.

The DIA’s discoveries affect Boss Callipari’s relationship with the Medellín cartel, prompting him to take drastic security measures. Meanwhile, a text message written in Narco Code is intercepted. A large shipment of cocaine is on its way. The DIA team is able to track the time, place, and date of the landing. A few hours later, however, Cecilia, Inspector Spanò’s teenage daughter, goes missing. A small package is delivered to Spanò’s house. He opens it and finds Cecilia’s little finger inside. Now Spanò is faced with a choice: fight the drug cartels or trade his integrity for his daughter’s life.