When a baby dies after ingesting formula mixed with liquid cocaine, the detectives investigate. However, IAB interferes.
Tropes present in this episode
- Dirty Cop: Detective Brad Kendall acts as The Mole in the PD to cover up the ring.
- Internal Affairs: IAB interferes when the detectives are about to question the husband. In a subversion, IAB is right; there is a Dirty Cop involved.
- Jurisdiction Friction: A mother feeds her baby formula she stole from her employers, not knowing that there was pure liquid cocaine in the cans and leading to the baby's death. The detectives look into the couple who had the formula and are about to question the husband, but an IAB officer stops them. It turns out that Narcotics has been looking into a drug smuggling operation that uses baby formula to hide the drugs.
- Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: A baby overdosing on cocaine mixed with baby formula leads to a major drug smuggling operation run by a Dirty Cop and a Corrupt Corporate Executive.
- Ripped from the Headlines: The case is based on an international drug ring
that smuggled drugs in cans of baby formula, and also had couriers posing as parents who would use their own babies (or in some cases, "renting" babies) so they could avoid suspicions at Customs. - The Shrink: Stabler gets his badge back after having to shoot Kendall, but he is still not OK. Since Benson saw a shrink after she shot somebody, he asks if it helped. She says it didn't, implying the shrink fell under the "well-meaning but ultimately useless" category.
