Episode 10: Enemy
Detectives Fontana and Green are confronted with a massacre at a drug den in Washington Heights. Three dealers have been gunned down along with four girls from a well-to-do New York prep school. One of the girls survived and is rushed to hospital. The cops learn that the students met the dealers at a downtown rave, where they were invited to go back to the stash house and snort heroin. The men work for Sammy Santiago, a mid-level dealer.
The detectives visit Santiago's apartment, only to find that someone has tortured him to death. Noting that Santiago seems to have let his killer into the flat, Green suggests they check his phone records. "We pull the logs on the phone, maybe we can find out who visited him," he says. The phone records lead to them an Albanian masonry supplier called Bardha, who denies any involvement in the crime. "I sell gravel," he tells them simply.
However, DNA evidence and testimony from the surviving girl quickly tie Bardha to both crimes. Facing multiple charges, Bardha agrees to cut a deal. The Albanian explains that he was hired by an Indian drug dealer named Raheem after Sammy Santiago stole some of his heroin. Bardha tortured Santiago to reveal the location of the drugs. "He tells me where Raheem's heroin is, so I go to the stash house and get it back," Bardha says. The girls' deaths were merely accidental, as Bardha had not expected them to be there.
The cops now set their sights on Raheem, who is caught red-handed trying to smuggle heroin from Afghanistan. To save his own skin, Raheem offers to give up his supplier - an Afghan warlord named Khaleel, who just so happens to be visiting New York. Raheem, wearing a wire, climbs into Khaleel's car and films him talking about the murders. Police then swoop to arrest the Afghan.
Khaleel's defence lawyer, Phillip Rems, wastes no time in trying to have the undercover recording disallowed. "The police eavesdropped on a diplomatic car," he says, pointing out that the vehicle had diplomatic plates. The argument is not good enough for the judge, who agrees to allow the video.
However, a new problem arises when an official from the State Department urges Branch to drop the case because Khaleel is an ally in the war on terror. "Khaleel has helped us capture a dozen al-Qaeda operatives over the last two years," he says. The US military in Afghanistan appears to overlook Khaleel's drug dealing because he is implacably opposed to the Taliban. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend," is how McCoy summarises this policy.
Branch resolves to prosecute the Afghan, only to learn that Rems is to mount an extraordinary defence. The lawyer claims that the US government did more than just turn a blind eye to Khaleel's activities - it encouraged them. Rems says that Khaleel has to behave like a drug dealer if he is to have any power or influence in Afghanistan. "So if someone steals his drugs, he's authorised to slaughter them to keep his cover?" Southern asks incredulously.
Nonetheless, McCoy knows there is a chance that a jury might believe the notion that Khaleel's activities were sanctioned by the government, especially when his handler, a US army captain, is called to the stand. "I don't want them buying any paranoid conspiracy theories about the federal government," says Branch of the jurors. Can McCoy prove that murder is murder, regardless of its tangled history?
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The longest-running drama on American television tackles crime and justice from a dual perspective, quizzing suspects in the streets of New York and negotiating the complex prosecution system.
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