Rio Connection presents the true story of three European gangsters who moved to Rio de Janeiro. In the mid-1970s, Italian and American authorities were closing in on three major organized crime figures: Sicilian Mafia capo Tommaso Buscetta; French gangster Lucien Sarti; and one of the biggest sellers of fake paintings of all time, Fernand Legros. On the run, the three end up in Brazil, with new identities and a goal: to tropicalize the mafia, establishing a strategic point for international heroin trafficking.