High Crime 1973

A Lebanese drug dealer arrives in Genoa, and Commissario Belli, Franco Nero begins a tense pursuit. After a long car chase, Belli manages to arrest him. However, when the prisoner is being taken to the police station, the police car is bombed. The blast kills the Lebanese dealer and four policemen, but Belli survives and remains determined to unravel what happened.

Belli travels to Cafiero, Fernando Rey, an old-fashioned gangster who now claims to be a peaceful gardener, to question the bombing and uncover the growing threat. Cafiero suspects a new player in town and sets out to tackle the new gang before the police have a chance to react. His trusted man, Rico, Daniel Martín, is revealed to be a mole working for the unknown gang, complicating Belli’s plan and creating a sense that danger runs deeper than expected.

Belli’s boss, Commissioner Aldo Scavino, James Whitmore, has assembled a dossier mapping the city’s mafia connections but believes there’s not enough hard evidence to crack the system from top to bottom. After several discussions with Belli, Scavino agrees to take the dossier to the district attorney. Yet tragedy strikes when Scavino is murdered and the dossier is stolen. Belli steps into Scavino’s shoes as the new Commissioner and starts tracing the killer himself. The murderer points to Umberto Griva, Duilio Del Prete, as the boss behind the operation. When Griva’s brother Franco, Silvano Tranquilli, is later found murdered, it suggests that someone with even higher political ties is maneuvering behind the scenes to control the city’s drug trafficking.

With Cafiero’s warning in mind, Belli decides to move his family to safety, sending his daughter away. But tragedy follows when his daughter is killed and his girlfriend Mirella, Delia Boccardo, is beaten. A crucial tip from Cafiero leads Belli to a large drug-smuggling setup. He arrives at the scene just as a fierce shootout erupts. In the end, Belli survives the confrontation and the criminals are all killed, bringing a hard-won, if pyrrhic, sense of closure to the case.