FBI on The Sopranos

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A major plotline on the fictional HBO drama, The Sopranos, has been the FBI's ongoing pursuit of the DiMeo (NJ) and Lupertazzi (Brooklyn) crime families. The Bureau's investigations have met with varying degrees of success. This article lists both characters who have acted as FBI informants and FBI agent characters and as such is an expansion of the main article List of characters from The Sopranos.

Contents

[edit] FBI Informants

Fred Peters' past catches up to him
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Fred Peters' past catches up to him
Jimmy Altieri
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Jimmy Altieri

Being an FBI informant on The Sopranos is a risky proposition, often ending in death. Thus far, New York snitch Jimmy Petrille is the only known FBI informant to escape alive. The following is a list of characters who are known to have been FBI informants and their respective fates:

Executed in Season 1 by Tony Soprano
Executed in Season 1 by Silvio Dante
Executed in Season 2 by Tony Soprano, Silvio Dante, and Paulie Gualtieri
Executed in Season 5 by Silvio Dante
Died of natural causes in Season 6
Executed in Season 5 on orders from Tony Soprano
In Season 5, Petrille was revealed as an informant only when the FBI indicted the newly installed Lupertazzi family boss, Johnny Sack, on his evidence, eventually leading to Sack's imprisonment. Presumably Petrille has since entered the Witness Protection Program (although this has not been mentioned); this would make him the only known informant at large on the show.
Committed suicide by hanging in Season 6

[edit] FBI Agents

[edit] Chief Frank Cubitoso

FBI chief of New Jersey division who is constantly looking for new insight on the ongoing Soprano/DiMeo case. He successfully coordinates a mission to put the Soprano residence under surveillance by the use of an old lamp in their basement. The operation ends when Meadow takes the old lamp to college. He also pressures Adriana La Cerva into wearing a wire which leads to her confession and death. When Agent Sanseverino worries after Adriana disappears, Cubitoso decides it is time to move on.

[edit] Agent Ron Goddard

Agent Harris' new partner in Counter Terrorism.

[edit] Agent Ron Gosling

An agent who handled Eugene Pontecervo prior to his suicide.

[edit] Agent Frank Grasso

An FBI agent who handled mob capo, Raymond Curto. During a raid on the Soprano residence, Grasso broke a bowl from the kitchen refrigerator. Immediately after, he and Tony developed a grudge when Tony noted his last name and insulted him in Italian.

[edit] Agent Dwight Harris

FBI agent long specializing in investigation of the DiMeo/Soprano crime family, to the extent of developing a friendly rapport with several of its members, particularly Tony. Recently returned to the United States after being assigned to counter-terrorism duty in Pakistan, where he caught a bad stomach parasite. Nevertheless, he frequents Satriale's pork store, apparently for the familiar food and company, but has also approached Christopher for information on terrorism-related organised crime.

In the Season 6 episode "Kaisha," Harris is at Satriale's to inform Tony that someone on his crew could be in danger, although he has no specific details.

[edit] Agent Skip Lipari

An FBI agent who handled Big Pussy Bonpensiero. When Pussy begins to confide more and more to Skip as a friend, Skip tries to tell him that he is not his friend and is there to help the federal government. Chief Cubitoso warns Lipari that he could be risking getting too close to Bonpensiero himself. Lipari may have suspected that Bonpensiero was involved in the Matthew Bevilaqua murder, but apparently did not report it. Skip says that his father was a plumber.

[edit] Agent Joe Marquez

Agent Harris' partner from 2000 to 2001 while working on the Soprano/DiMeo crime family investigation.

[edit] Agent Robyn Sanseverino

An FBI agent who handeled Adriana La Cerva after she became very resentful against Agent Ciccerone. Agent Sanseverino explains to Adriana that she became an FBI agent because her roommate was paralysed by her boyfriend's reckless use of a gun. She needed to take a stand against men like him and became an agent. She has a daughter who was a secret from Adriana. Also handled capo Raymond Curto just before his death from natural causes.

[edit] Agent Smyj

Agent sometimes present at meetings about the Soprano/DiMeo crime family investigation.

[edit] Agent Deborah Ciccerone Waldrup

A special agent who went undercover as "Danielle" to befriend Adriana and to find out information about her fiancee's relationship with Tony Soprano.

[edit] Agent Mike Waldrup

Husband and fellow FBI agent of Deborah Ciccerone Waldrup. Takes care of their baby when Deborah talks to Adriana on a special phone line.

[edit] FBI Tech

Instrumental in placing a listening device in Tony Soprano's basement hidden inside a lamp. Later involved in monitoring this device until it was unwittingly neutralized by Meadow Soprano as she removed it from the house.

[edit] FBI Investigations & Indictments

[edit] Junior Soprano

Corrado "Junior" Soprano has been a major target of the FBI throughout the run of the series. At the end of Season One, the titular head of the DiMeo family was indicted on federal racketeering charges, partly on information derived from snitch Jimmy Altieri. The Bureau attempted to flip Junior and get him to testify that his nephew, Tony Soprano, was the street boss and, in fact, the de facto head of the family. However, being both "old school" and loathe to admit that his nephew held the real power, Junior refused. Junior's trial unfolded over the ensuing three seasons of the series.

In season four the FBI inserted an agent into Junior's physicians office as a nurse - Junior used the office to conduct meetings while under house arrest. Junior learned of this from his attorney and ended his practice of meeting there. After unsuccessfully arguing that he lacked capacity to stand trial as a result of a fall he suffered on the courthouse steps, Junior was able to obtain a mistrial in the Season Four finale thanks to a hung jury which was tampered with by Junior's lieutenant, Bobby Baccalieri. The government quickly announced its intention to retry Junior. However, Junior's mental condition has taken a turn for the worse and it is unclear whether he will have capacity to stand trial.

[edit] John Sacrimoni

At the end of Season Five, the FBI conducted a raid on the home of John Sacrimoni, the boss of the Lupertazzi crime family (Brooklyn), while Sacrimoni was having a meeting with Tony Soprano. Soprano was not a target of the raid and was able to escape unscathed. It was revealed that Jimmy Petrille, a capo in the Lupertazzi family, had been an FBI informant for some time. On the strength of his information, the government undertook major indictments against the Lupertazzi family that would have reached the former boss, Carmine Lupertazzi, himself if he had still been alive. Sacrimoni, the new boss, was held in federal custody awaiting a major RICO trial. His lawyer negotiated a 15 year sentence in exchange for asset seizures and an allocution.

[edit] Tony Soprano

The FBI searches Tony Soprano's home
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The FBI searches Tony Soprano's home

The Organized Crime Division of the FBI's New Jersey office has had Tony Soprano in its crosshairs since the show's inception, yet has been unable to make anything stick against the New Jersey boss.

In Season One, after Tony survives an assassination attempt, the Bureau attempts to flip Tony by revealing to him that it was his uncle and his mother who had orchestrated the foiled hit. Tony, however, refuses to break omerta and seeks his own kind of revenge.

In Season Two, Tony and soldier Sal "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero murder mob associate Matthew Bevilaqua in an abandoned shack in Hacklebarney State Park after Bevilaqua attempted a hit on Christopher Moltisanti. Unbeknownst to Tony, a civic-minded civilian was at the park that night, heard the gunshots, and saw Tony drive away, and reported what he saw to the local police. However, the witness recanted when he learned that Tony was in the mob, and Tony was able to evade any charges.

It is also revealed in Season Two that Big Pussy, perhaps Tony's best friend, had been an FBI informant for several years. A major plot point during the season involves Tony's suppressed awareness that his friend is a rat and his reluctance to face that unsavory fact. For his part, Bonpensiero's feelings oscillate from extreme guilt over betraying his close friend to bitterness towards Tony over being passed over for promotion (which, ironically, was because of Tony's suspicions that Pussy was a rat) to touches of Stockholm Syndrome, resulting in delusions of one day having a career in law enforcement. Ultimately, in the Season Two finalé ("Funhouse"), Tony lures his friend out to sea under the pretense that he needs his opinion on a boat he's considering buying. There, Bonpensiero is confronted and executed by the three men who once considered him a "brother": Tony, Silvio Dante, and Paulie Gualtieri.

Tony, however, ran into trouble when his mother was detained at airport security for using tickets he gave her from the Scatino bust out. The FBI acquired a search warrant for the Soprano home and found the rest of the tickets from the bust out in Tony's Chevy Suburban. On the eve of his daughter's high school graduation, Tony was taken into federal custody. Tony made bail and, ultimately, was able to beat the charges (although this is never explicitly shown).

With their major asset within the DiMeo family, Pussy Bonpenseiro, eliminated, the feds took a new approach in Season Three in their efforts to build a RICO case against Tony Soprano. After getting a warrant to wire the Soprano home, agents broke in while the family was out and place a bugged lamp in the basement, where Tony would often discuss business. However, the plan was derailed when Meadow Soprano, during an argument with her parents, took the lamp to use in her dorm room at Columbia University.

The Bureau then targeted Adriana La Cerva as a possible conduit through which it could ensnare and flip her fianceé, Christopher Moltisanti, to testify against Tony. Special Agent Debora Ciccerone was sent in undercover to get close to Adriana in hopes of gaining information that could be used to turn Christopher. However, the operation came to an abrupt end when Adriana broke off her friendship with Ciccerone, whom she believed had attempted to seduce Christopher. The feds, however, brought Adriana in and presented her with an ultimatum: either turn informant or be sent to prison on drug charges.

Adriana selected the former option. For the most part, Adriana avoided giving up any serious information to the Bureau, primarily because Christopher didn't share the details of his work with her. Nevertheless, the situation proved to be a tremendous strain for Adriana, who would develop irritable bowel syndrome because of her duplicity. In the next-to-last episode of Season Five, Adriana was caught on tape (the FBI had her club under surveillance) disposing of evidence in a drug-related homicide that occurred at her club. The Bureau brought her in and threatened to give her up to the Long Branch Police Department as an accessory to murder unless she gave the FBI full cooperation in its investigation of Tony Soprano, including a requirement that she wear a wire. Adriana offered a counterproposal: she claimed Christopher was unhappy with his place within the family and that she could get him to flip if they were given immunity and relocated to another part of the country. The government agreed.

Adriana revealed to Christopher that she had been working as a government informant, and Christopher, awash in anger and shock, responded by strangling and nearly killing his fianceé. Christopher then broke down sobbing and apologized to Adriana. After discussing their possible future in the witness protection program all night, Christopher left his apartment to get some fresh air, leaving Adriana under the impression that he would cooperate. Ultimately, Christopher's loyalty to the family won out over his love for Adriana. Christopher informed Tony of Adriana's status as a rat, and Tony then telephoned Adriana and told her that Christopher had attempted suicide. Tony sent Silvio Dante to pick her up under the pretense Silvio would take her to Christopher. Instead, Silvio drove Adriana out to the woods and executed her.

In the first episode of Season Six ("Members Only"), longtime rat Raymond Curto died of a stroke in the front seat of FBI Agent Robyn Sanseverino's car. Curto is known to have been an informant since at least the beginning of Season Three ("Proshai, Livushka"). His final act was to pass on a recording of Tony discussing the Angelo Giacalone murders that may have needed some explanation by Curto himself to be of any use.

In that same Season Six episode it was revealed that DiMeo soldier Eugene Pontecorvo was an FBI informant. However, Pontecorvo committed suicide at the end of the episode after both Tony and the Bureau refused his requests to retire with his family to Florida. It is not known how long Pontecorvo was an informant or what information he gave the FBI.

What is known is that the FBI remains vigilant in its quest to build a major RICO case against the elusive boss of North Jersey, Anthony Soprano.


v • d • e
The Sopranos
Characters

Tony • Dr. Melfi • Carmela • Christopher • Uncle Junior • Meadow • A.J. • Jackie Jr.• Janice • Silvio • Paulie Walnuts • Bobby "Bacala"
Johnny Sack • Vito • Adriana • Furio • Tony B. • Ralph • Big Pussy • Livia • Artie • Phil • Hesh

Organizations/Locales/Groups

DiMeo Crime Family • Lupertazzi Crime Family • Bada Bing • Satriale's Pork Store • FBI

Episode List • Death List

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