A Catholic priest (and former Green Beret) takes up arms to help defend a small Mexican town from ruthless drug cartels.

SYNOPSIS:

At the height of drug cartel violence in Mexico, a contract killer would kill a public official, policeman, or rival cartel member for as little as 1000 pesos (about 50 U.S. dollars).

ROMEO (30s), a member of the Diamondback (D-Back) cartel, terrorizes a family of migrant fruit pickers. ROSA (18) is the sole survivor of her murdered family of five after Romeo and his second in command, FRANCO (30s), murder them after they can’t pay the cartel “tax”. Rosa is not killed but sent back to La Mira to warn the people that they mean business.

Romeo visits FATHER NIEVES (45), a local Catholic priest, to try to pay him off so he can get married in the La Mira church. Father Nieves refuses to officiate the marriage or let him use the church because he’s a cartel man. Romeo vows to make him pay.

Franco takes Father Nieves, nails him to a makeshift cross and burns him alive outside the church. ERNESTO (18), Father Nieves’s oldest altar boy, sees them do it. Romeo gets another priest, FATHER OCAMPO (40s), to officiate the wedding.

FATHER MORENO (45), and Father Nieves were U.S. Army Green Berets together and joined the seminary together when they were fed up with war. Father Moreno requests a transfer to La Mira. The local Bishop is leery and says he will let him know.

Not waiting for an answer, Father Moreno travels to La Mira and reports as if he were assigned. Father Ocampo is suspicious, but reluctantly lets him take the parish. Father Moreno gets to know Ernesto and gets information on where the D-Backs hang out.

Father Moreno wears a black ski mask, finds Franco and his goons at a bar, kills the cartel men, wounds Franco, and burns him alive in his own car as retribution. He confiscates their weapons and two bundles of explosive charges.

The D-Backs take revenge by machine gunning a local Autodefensas (militia) meeting in the town square. Ernesto’s father, ARTURO (55), the leader of the Autodefensas, is killed.

Ernesto suspects that Father Moreno killed Franco and his revenge on the D-Backs caused his father’s death. Ernesto catches Father Moreno packing to leave and confronts him. Father Moreno admits to the killings and shares that he disavowed himself from the church. He feels guilty and takes over the Autodefensas anonymously as “Hidalgo” and helps them defend the town.

He finds out that La Mira’s value to the D-Backs is its coastal access and the key is the bridge at the edge of town. Father Moreno plans to blow up the bridge to force the D-Backs to take another route.

The Autodefensas blow up the bridge, kill Romeo, and seize the drug shipment. Father Moreno goes to the leader of the D-Backs, EL LOBO (The Wolf)(50s), to strike a deal or the violence will not stop. He offers his life and the drug shipment in exchange for them staying out of La Mira.

El Lobo admires Father Moreno but must kill him to avenge his men. When El Lobo gets his drug shipment back, Father Moreno offers him a thousand peso bill to kill him. El Lobo laughs at his boldness and shoots him…but honors his deal and stays out of La Mira, which is “now known as a community where the cartels are not welcome and human life is worth much more than a thousand pesos.”