Brash cop Fabio (a sturdy and charismatic performance by Fabio Testi) goes deep undercover to take down an international drug syndicate that specializes in trafficking heroin. Things are complicated when volatile Interpol agent Hamilton (robustly played with fierce no-nonsense intensity by David Hemmings) joins the investigation. Director Enzo Castellari, working from a compact and complex script by Galliano Juso and Massimo De Rita, relates the absorbing story at a brisk pace, maintains a tough, gritty, and cynical tone throughout, further spruces things up with amusing moments of cheeky humor, and stages the action set pieces with considerable rip-roaring brio (a daring robbery in a police station as well as the shoot-outs in a chemical plant and at a construction site all rate as definite exciting highlights). Testi and Hemmings both excel in the lead roles; they receive sound support from Joshua Sinclair as smooth head dealer Gianni, Wolfgango Soldati as twitchy addict Gilo, Sherry Buchanan as Gilo's concerned girlfriend Vera, and Romano Puppo as a brutish enforcer. Giovanni Bergamini's glossy cinematography provides an impressively slick and stylish look. The pulsating score by Goblin hits the funky-throbbing spot. An on the money item.

Fabio Testi (Four of the Apocalypse, Revolver) plays the aptly named character of Fabio, an undercover cop who's on assignment to bust a group of drug peddlers in this lesser Enzo G. Castellari directed film. I make the aforementioned statement comparably to the director's other films off course, as this one is still quite watchable in it's own right. Testi is always watchable, but this one just isn't one of my favorite films in the 'italian crime' genre. It came off, to me anyway, as a tad dated and more then a tad more cartoonish.My Grade: C- Eye Candy: Patrizia Webley gets topless; Sherry Buchanan shows off boobs & bush

When I first saw this film many years ago, I was put off by its slow and fragmented first ten minutes, featuring scenes of (gratuitous!) drug use in various parts of the world. Also, I had just seen David Hemmings' other Italian crime film from this year, SWINDLE with Tomas Milian (directed by Bruno Corbucci), which was INCREDIBLE, and this did not seem as good. However, once the film kicks into gear after fifteen minutes or so, it is quite good and features some incredible stunt work, imaginative action sequences, exciting guitar-driven music from Goblin (not as repetitive as some of their work), a wonderful over-the-top performance by David Hemmings as an interpol narcotics investigator, and a cool, smoldering performance by Fabio Testi as an undercover cop out to bust the international drug trade. As a later 70s product, this film features unnecessary closeup shots of drug use and some gratuitous nudity (a lesbian scene presented as a FANTASY of a minor character!), but there's not enough of either to derail what becomes a nail-biting action film. The final fifteen to twenty minutes of HEROIN BUSTERS are incredible--the motorcycle chase in the subway, which leads into an outrageous airplane chase--some of the most interesting and daredevil action-film stunt-work I've seen in a while. The film also has nice bursts of humor here and there (such as when Hemmings, chasing a crook, gets a ride from a young lady on a motorcycle and has to grab on to her breast to hold on!) and was quite satisfying on all levels. It does start slow, however, so don't give up on it (or fast forward through some of the initial scenes). What a "golden age" of Italian crime films the 1970's was--even a standard genre entry turns out to be a gem, the likes of which would NEVER be made today.

This crime thriller tells the story of an undercover cop (Fabio Testi) who has to "play" a drug dealer so that the real dealers accept him as a member of their syndicate and he can come close to the big men at the top of the syndicate. As it is the problem with many genre films of its decade, the depiction of the drug dealers, their environments and the investigating methods of the undercover cop looks clichéd and hilariously out of date. Except for that, this is a highly entertaining, action packed film.Fabio Testi never looks like a real drug dealer, but who cares, his acting is solid as ever. David Hemmings as the police inspector who knows about Testi's true identity brings English flair to the role with his sometimes almost exaggerated British accent. The supporting cast consists of many faces familiar from other Italian genre outings (e.g. the ruthless syndicate killer in Lucio Fulci's "Luca il Contrabbandiere" from 1981, also starring Testi in the lead role), and the score by the (at that time) Argento regulars "Goblin" just rocks. There are some quite original action sequences, especially the climax, in which director Enzo Girolami delivers a plane chase for once instead of a car chase (and this plane chase looks daring sometimes). Because the simple plot always pushes the action forward, the movie never becomes boring and delivers.Certainly not Enzo Girolami's best film (his "La Polizia Incrimina, la Legge Assolve" is probably the best Italian crime film ever made), mainly because the story is never really convincing, but it's fast paced and will please every fan of Italian crime thrillers.