The United States Coast Guard cutter Panache intercepts a yacht in the Caribbean Sea, discovering two Latino males cleaning up after executing a man and his family. Through a mock execution, the Coast Guardsmen coerce the executioners to confess to the grisly murders. However, it is later learned that the murdered man was part of a money laundering scheme within the Medellin Cartel; upon further investigation, it is discovered he had laundered and embezzled approximately $650,000,000 in US Dollars.

The details of the expedition quickly percolate up to the office of the President, who calls for a change of direction in the War on Drugs. The incumbent president feels compelled to take drastic measures against the drug trade in the United States because election-year mudslinging has revealed his failure to generate returns on campaign promises regarding the drug-trafficking in the United States. The President’s challenger, J. Robert Fowler, has rallied the public behind the administration’s failure to curb the drug trade, and forces them to take a harder, more active stance against drug importation.

In order to combat the source of drugs, the President feels that initiating covert operations within Colombia is the most efficient response. The CIA concocts a bold plan involving a sudden step-up of airborne-interdiction operations against aircraft believed to be entering US airspace with the intent to distribute narcotics. In order to positively verify targets, the CIA also dispatches a Rangers unit to illegally invade Colombian territory and visually stake-out small airstrips dispatching and receiving drug-trafficking aircraft. The units, verifying and reporting departing drug flights, dismantle and destroy the airstrip after the aircraft is shot down or captured.