From the Afghanistan poppy fields to the smuggling routes across Europe and onwards to the cutting of the heroin and its sale on the streets of London, this action thriller peers into the dark recesses of the criminal underworld. A team of dedicated Metropolitan Police detectives is determined to bring the gangs down. When the Prime Minister's son is hospitalised after taking a heroin overdose Detective Superintendent John Brookes and his team are given licence to pursue the gangs responsible for distributing the drugs on London's streets. Brookes is intelligent, determined and not a little sneaky in his approach. But getting to the men at the very top of the drug cartels will require all of his wit and resources. He decides to concentrate first on Ivan Bronchi, the leader of a Russian gang who monopolise the distribution of drugs over half of the capital. When one of Bronchi's lieutenants is gunned down by a rival Jamaican gang the investigators get a lucky break. A mobile phone is found on his dead body containing information that enables Brookes to shut down the Russians drug supply route into the country. With his criminal empire crippled Bronchi strikes out and time is fast running out for Detective Superintendent Brookes to finish what he had started.