Jeffrey Whitehead was a detective in NYPD, specializing in art crimes. He has been on the trail of a triptych called The Madonna of the Spirits, stolen in 1982 by drug lord Albert Scianti and has turned up in Miami in 1989, in possession of Scianti's son Joey, his nephew Sal Castelli, and Stanley Costa. During a drug deal gone bad, Costa ended up dead, two of the three Madonna paintings ended up with Metro-Dade police, and the third (and main one) is still with Scianti and Castelli. Whitehead is very well versed in all art forms, and arranges to sell a duplicate of Kostabi painting to get inside with Castelli and have a crack at getting the Madonna, and Whitehead arranges for a deal involving a large amount of drugs in exchange for the Madonna, but Whitehead had planned to steal the entire