Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
Officer Beadie Russell’s work at the port brings a shipping container holding murdered women to police attention, while Jimmy McNulty separately finds a woman’s body floating in the harbor during a Harbor Patrol assignment. The cases draw attention to Baltimore’s docks, and Major Stan Valchek’s feud with stevedore union leader Frank Sobotka gives the department a route into the union. Frank is diverting money to keep the port and its jobs alive. His son Ziggy and nephew Nick become involved with the Greek smuggling network, first moving stolen goods and then drawing deeper into its business. Beadie and the Major Crimes detail trace containers, while Frank keeps pressing politicians and port officials for help. The dead women’s case and the dock investigation gradually converge on the same organization.
Daniels leads the detail, with Freamon and Russell uncovering irregularities in the union’s records and container traffic. The wiretap reveals how far the Greeks’ operation reaches, but the crew keeps slipping away from police attention. Ziggy’s attempt to prove himself ends in a killing. Frank, alarmed by the danger closing around his family, offers information to the FBI in exchange for help for his son; the Greeks learn of his cooperation and kill him. Nick gives evidence, Ziggy is imprisoned, and the port investigation winds down without bringing the Greek leadership to justice. Russell and Bunk revisit Philadelphia for evidence, while McNulty returns to the West Side with Greggs. There, the Barksdale crew’s supply problems and Stringer Bell’s dealings with Proposition Joe carry the drug story forward.