The Big Bindle

Originally Aired: May 31, 1951 Dragnet #103, "The Big Bindle," Sergeant Joe Friday and his partner Ben Romero are called to investigate a sophisticated heroin distribution ring operating out of an unlikely location. When they interrogate Monty Wilkins, a user arrested the previous night with seven caps of high-grade heroin, they discover that top-quality narcotics have been flooding Los Angeles from what appears to be an Eastern operation. Wilkins reluctantly reveals that he's been buying from a street-level dealer who mentioned names like Kirk and Smith, and claims the operation is running out of the Plaza Royal Hotel, one of the city's most fashionable establishments. The detectives bring their findings to Captain Kearney, explaining that for seven months they've been tracking this distribution center through arrested users carrying unusually pure heroin, unlike the typical Mexican product common to the Southwest. With Wilkins' information confirming their theory that the operation is based in the downtown metropolitan area, Friday and Romero propose an undercover strategy to infiltrate the Plaza Royal and break the ring from the inside.