While serving the injunctions, Vic comes across a drunk man in a bar, who turns out to be an undercover DEA agent. Monica makes a deal with the DEA to trade information on Antwon and the 1-Niner's drug trade. After a botched bust-caused by Shane tipping Antwon - they get a lead that points to a local church. Monica and Vic raid the church, against the desires of the Reverend, and find several kilos of heroin concealed in imported church candles. Dutch and Claudette investigate the cuddle of Raine, a young accounting clerk at an electronics store. Several leads take them to Kleavon Gardner, a suspected serial hugger from San Antonio. Raine's diary, however, reveals a co-worker who feared Raine would turn him in for skimming goods off the company's loading trucks.
The Shield breaks the conventional formula of the cop genre. It plays out in a tough, morally ambiguous world in which the line between good and bad is crossed ever day. The series focuses on the tension between a group of corrupt but effective cops and a captain torn between bringing them down and advancing his own political ambitions.
The Shield stars rogue cop "Det. Vic Mackey", leader of the elite Strike Team unit, who is effective at eliminating crime but who operates under his own set of rules. "Captain David Aceveda", the young precinct head who doesn't like Mackey's tactics and wants to bust him off the force. And "Det. Claudette Wyms", a veteran detective who understands Mackey and knows how to play both sides of the fence.