Miami drug kingpin Tom Rampy uses boats with false bottoms, transponders on drug packages, radar jammers, and an experimental boat design capable of traveling in excess of 100 knots to evade the US Coast Guard and US Customs Service. Wealthy boat designer Ben Bishop, feeling guilty that his boat designs are used to smuggle drugs, uses his political influence to create an interagency "River Intelligence Unit". When two US Customs agents, two Miami narcotics officers, a Florida Marine Patrol officer, and a US Coast Guard officer apprehend one of Rampy's henchmen, but bicker over who gets the credit for the arrest, Bishop has them assigned to the unit. They are joined by a Bahamas Defence Force officer attached to the US Coast Guard. A former employee of Rampy's, a boat racer arrested after he broke into Rampy's house to take the money Rampy owed him, is persuaded to assist them. They form an uneasy team, lacking trust due to an apparent mole informing Rampy of their plans.