The Big Gun Part 2
from Friday - The Dragnet Podcast
Originally Aired: May 31, 1953 Dragnet #206, "The Big Gun Part 2," Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Frank Smith continue their investigation of an organized car theft ring, interrogating suspect Sloan in the interview room at the main jail. After his partner Summers has already broken and confessed, Sloan reluctantly agrees to cooperate, but insists he doesn't know the identity of the mysterious boss running the operation. He explains that the mastermind contacts him only by phone at predetermined times, directing which cars to steal and coordinating the entire scheme. Sloan describes an elaborate system where drug addicts steal cars on order, drive them to Mexico using cold license plates, and receive payment in heroin that flows back through Sloan for distribution. As Friday and Smith press for details about the operation, Sloan admits he was recruited six months ago when he was down on his luck, chosen because of his prior auto theft conviction back east. He reveals how the sophisticated ring moves stolen vehicles across the border to Tijuana, where they're exchanged for narcotics that fuel both the thieves' addictions and the criminal enterprise. Despite his cooperation, Sloan maintains he's never met or identified the calculating boss who engineered the entire operation.
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