SAIGON, APRIL 1975: While pulling out of the war zone, the last thing Sonny wants to see is another dead body. Still, his comrade-in-arms Ira Stone leads him below deck on a troop ship to view the lowest insult to a soldier. A late member of Sonny’s unit isn’t going home without a souvenir--his body bag is stuffed with heroin. (Could this be what motivated Sonny to join the Vice Squad?)

MIAMI, 10 YEARS LATER: After Sonny and Rico get to observe the DEA acting on a bad tip, a news chopper lands and Ira Stone hops out to greet him. Still the reporter and ‘danger junkie’, Ira has a possible drug story and needs Sonny’s help. The smuggler who was stuffing body bags, known only as “the Sergeant”, is running his operation again in South Florida. Sonny tells Rico the story and they go to lunch with Ira and his publisher.

According to Ira, addicts in the Northeast have been getting sick off shipments of Laotian heroin contaminated with wood alcohol, which the army uses as a corpse preservative. He’s traced the sources back to the Miami area, and there may be a local vet who knows something, a Captain Maynard. Sonny runs it by Castillo, having found another cantamination case in Miami’s VA ward. He’s authorized to run down that case, but no more. Unfortunately, no one at the VA ward is cooperative, and by nightfall Sonny and Ira are out on the Scarab trading war stories, at least until somebody starts firing mortar rounds at them. Sonny quickly motors them out of danger, and later at the station it’s determined that the target was Ira, so he’s going under police guard while squad searches for answers.

Stan and Rico come across a dying snitch with a Laotian stash, who gives up the name ‘Dakota’. Later Sonny drives Ira to a party claiming he’s found Capt. Maynard. At first Ira balks by saying he got along with Maynard in-country, but not “Back in The World”, and when Maynard claims there never was a Sergeant, Ira blows up and leaves the party. Sonny follows only to learn that Ira has had a recurring drug problem and now he’s trying to convince Sonny that he made the story up, but the snitch’s stash proves that Sergeant or no Sergeant, the supply is still out there.

Stan and Rico find Dakota and attempt to buy the stash before rots, but she reveals that Ira has already contacted her. Sonny and Rico go to his hotel room only to find his leaving wife, who informs them that he’s gone to a meeting, and according to Dakota, it’s with the Laotian’s supplier.

Sneaking in, Sonny overhears Ira bargaining with the supplier to bury the story in exchange for the deal’s profits. They tail the supplier but end up with their van skewered by a garbage truck. Rico did get a good look at him. . . and the description matches Maynard. Ira enlisted Sonny to lead him right to his target. Taking a tip from Maynard’s wife, Sonny and Rico head into the Glades, where they find Ira in a fishing wharf, shot by Maynard. Sonny chases him into the foliage, killing his assassin (the mortar man), and nearly shooting Rico. Maynard escapes by boat, leaving his tainted stash, which Sonny and Rico confiscate. Ira’s got his story, but it’s not over yet.

Incidentally, this was the first of four Vice episodes directed by Don Johnson!

Thanks to the fellow Miami Vice Fan C.T. that wrote this synopsis 

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