CSI: Miami

A pool is full of people. A security guard is alerted of a purse snatcher. Security guard chases the man, who ends up slipping on slimy substance. Security guard gets the man and the purse, then opens the tent where the substance was coming from. There is a girl drenched in slime, dead.

The girl is Tanya Fhurman. Eric and Ryan arrive to process the scene. A woman approaches Ryan to recover her stolen purse. Ryan checks her ID, Karla Gardner, but when he runs the driver's license there is a flag warning that she is wanted for fraud, loans not paid, bank made charges, etc. But Karla says that the problems are not hers, but of someone impersonating her. She shows a copy of an ID theft affidavit from the FTC. Ryan gives the purse to the woman.

Horatio and Alexx examine the dead girl. The liquid on the dead girl is gastric. Puncture wounds are bite marks. Something devoured this girl, head first. It must have been a boa or a python, weighing 200 pounds. The snake squeezed her, swallowed her, then spat her out. Eric and Frank are notified of the snake. They search, thinking like a snake to find where it might have gone to. Frank finds a slime path. It leads to a hole in the sun bed mattress. Broken branches indicate that the snake must have come down from a nearby building room. Eric is apprehending the snake. He and Frank pull it out. It is huge, but dead.

On the window ledge of the room are scales, like that from the boa. A company checked into the room, Low Dawg Productions, offshore holding company from the Bahamas. There is a bag where the snake was probably taken in. There is a tooth, not human, in the bag.

Ryan is approached by another woman who claims to be the owner of the purse. She is also Karla Gardner, who has lots of papers to identify herself. This Karla is sick and tired of the identity thief, because she gets around everything. It started a year and half ago, probably from something she threw away.

Tooth found in bag was reptilian, a Caman lizard. Port of authority said a crate of those lizards came in yesterday. They should still been in quarantine, but got special exemption. Apparently, the lizards were imported by a Dr. Merrick, big-shot herpetologist. The lizards were for the zoo. Dr. Merrick knows nothing of a big boa. There was no snake. Quarantine exemption makes things easy to pass by. By this, Horatio means drug smuggling.

Alexx opens up the snake, and finds a pill and piece of broken glass. The snake apparently swallowed the vial which crushed inside, causing an overdose. Eric takes the pill to test.

Frank calls Horatio. Horatio looks up Low Dawg Productions, and finds it belongs Clavo Cruz, an old nemesis.

Clavo Cruz is about to leave on a yellow Lamborgini with a hot girl when he sees Horatio. Clavo shows off his immunity and shakes off any accusations.

Ryan went to the first Karla's address, which was not an apartment but a P.O. Box, and recovered the mail. This Karla does the spending while the other Karla pays. There are bills which show that every Monday this Karla went to the same expensive restaurant. It's Monday, so Ryan heads there and finds the first Karla and asks her to come in. Ryan tests the second Karla for broken bones sustained by the real Karla years before the identity theft began. The second Karla is the real Karla. However, the fake Karla is let go. The State Attorney does not have enough evidence. Ryan believes that the lab can produce the evidence. Calleigh reminds him that non-violent crimes are not priority. Ryan is infuriated.

The pill found in the snake was PMA, or "Red Death" which looks like Ecstasy but takes more time before taking effect and therefore is easy to overdose and seriously dangerous.

Frank finds a dead boy, Kevin, who overdosed on Red Death. They ask the girl he was with, Hillary, where they got the pill. She thought it was "E". The seller was off of Ocean by the parking structure. They go there and find Billy Palmero who has the Red Deaths. He works at the docks. He works for Clavo Cruz, but will not testify in court against him.

Just as Ryan tries to apologize to Calleigh for not thanking her for helping him out, Calleigh gets a call that the victim at the Pier is the ex-husband of Karla Gardner. There is a nail file jabbed into his eye, hair in his hand. The real Karla tries to get into the crime scene. She has a fit, blaming the fake Karla for the murder. Since the real Karla was going to start sending $1000 to the ex, that would mean $1000 less for fake Karla to spend. They should have never let her go. Calleigh tells her to move behind the tape.

Horatio visits the Cruz residence. General Cruz, Clavo's father, does not agree to letting Clavo be prosecuted. Horatio stares at the handkerchief with the blood of the General (who was bleeding from plastic surgery). The Cruz are about to leave the country. Clavo is at a bar, smoking a Cuban cigar, which is illegal, and Frank arrests Clavo.

Hair and fingerprint on the nail file belonged to the identity thief. The identity thief, Eve Martinkus, admits to stealing 20 identities, but not to the killing. There was only one strand out of 34 with a DNA tag, which is strange if a struggle had pulled the hairs. Adhesive is found on the hair. Someone had used a lint roller to get the hair. The real Karla just wanted to get the false Karla in prison, so she did some dumpster diving, which she had learned from Eve, found the nail file, and killed her ex-husband.

General Cruz and his wife arrive at the station to ask for Clavo. Horatio presents them DNA evidence that Clavo is not the General's real son, but has a different father. The devastated General rescinds immunity for Clavo, and Clavo is taken away.