Ellsworth Johnson (Clarence Williams) is a gangster that runs much of Harlem. He dies of a heart attack, but not before imparting much of his discipline, intelligence and wisdom into his driver, Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) who decides to take control of the drug trade.
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Police detective Richie Roberts (Russel Crowe) is given the task -together with very honest cops like himself- to get to the root of the new drug causing so much havoc in the community. He is given a mandate to get to the supplier. But it is difficult to get Frank Lucas, in fact detective Roberts does not even know of his existence. This is because Lucas keeps an extremely low profile, dresses normally and makes no mistakes.
But a series of events and mistakes bring the police closer and closer to getting their hands on him.