Synopsis
In Chandler, Arizona, FBI Special Agents Kate Macer and Reggie Wayne lead a raid on a Sonora Cartel safe house where they discover dozens of decaying corpses. Outside, a booby trap bomb kills two police officers. Following the raid, Kate is recommended for and joins a Joint Task Force overseen by CIA operative Matt Graver and the secretive Alejandro Gillick. Their mission is to apprehend Sonora lieutenant Manuel Díaz.
The team, which includes Delta Force operators, U.S. Marshals, and CIA personnel, travel to Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, to extradite Díaz's brother, Guillermo. Kate is shocked when the team kills nine cartel hitmen, including Federales, attempting to break Díaz out as their convoy at the El Paso–Juárez border checkpoint. Back in the U.S., Alejandro tortures Guillermo and learns that the cartel uses a tunnel near Nogales to smuggle drugs. Meanwhile, Kate confronts Matt, who reveals that the real mission is to disrupt Díaz's drug operations so he will lead them to his boss, drug lord Fausto Alarcón. Kate asks her partner Reggie to join her for support.
The task force raids a bank used to launder Díaz's money. After finding financial evidence, Kate and Reggie want to start a legal case against Díaz but are ordered to stand down to avoid jeopardizing the operation. At a bar, Reggie introduces Kate to Ted, a local police officer. Kate and Ted become intimate at her apartment, but she realizes Ted is working with the cartel. In the ensuing struggle, Ted begins strangling Kate before Alejandro appears and subdues him. Alejandro and Matt reveal they used her as bait, knowing the cartel would target her after seeing her face on the bank's CCTV. Alejandro and Matt brutally beat Ted to coerce him into revealing the names of other officers working for Díaz.
After the team learns that Díaz has been recalled to Mexico, they prepare to raid the tunnel near Nogales. Matt reveals to Kate and Reggie that their involvement is a technical necessity. An angry Reggie tells Kate that they should leave, but she insists on staying to learn about the mission's true purpose. As a gunfight with the cartel begins, Kate follows Alejandro into Mexico. She sees him abduct Silvio, a Jalisco police officer working as one of Díaz's drug mules. Kate tries to arrest Alejandro, but he shoots her in her Kevlar vest before driving away with Silvio at gunpoint. On the U.S. side of the border, Kate confronts Matt, who explains the mission is part of a wider operation to consolidate the cartels into a single entity which the U.S. can more easily control. Alejandro, who previously worked for the Medellín Cartel in Colombia, was hired to assassinate Alarcón, who was responsible for ordering the murder of Alejandro's wife and daughter when he was a prosecutor in Ciudad Juarez.
Alejandro kills Silvio after he stops Díaz's vehicle. Alejandro forces Díaz to drive on to Alarcón's estate. On arrival, he quickly kills Díaz, Alarcón's guards, Alarcón's wife and two sons, and finally Al