FBI on ''The Sopranos''

A major plotline on the fictional HBO drama The Sopranos was the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's ongoing pursuit of the DiMeo (New Jersey) and Lupertazzi (Brooklyn) crime families. The Bureau's investigations met with varying degrees of success.[1] This article lists both characters who acted as F.B.I. informants and F.B.I. agent characters and as such is an expansion of the main article List of The Sopranos characters.

F.B.I. informants

Being an F.B.I. informant on The Sopranos is a risky proposition, often ending in death. Lupertazzi crime family consigliere, James Petrille, and Soprano family capo, Carlo Gervasi, are the only known F.B.I. informants to survive until the series' end. Raymond Curto deserves notice for being a longtime informer before dying of natural causes without ever being suspected. Listed below are characters who are known to have been F.B.I. informants and their respective fates. Note that Albie Cianflone was likely an informant, but he should not be included on the list because his cooperation (if any) is debatable, unconfirmed and unknown.

Informant Position Status Cause
Fabian "Febby" Petrulio aka Fred Peters Former soldier, turned State's Witness, kicked out of witness protection Deceased Executed by Tony Soprano in the first season episode "College".
Jimmy Altieri Capo, Soprano family Deceased Executed by Silvio Dante in the first season episode "I Dream of Jeannie Cusamano".
Sal "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero Soldier, Soprano family Deceased Executed by Tony Soprano, Silvio Dante, and Paulie Gualtieri in the second season episode, "Funhouse".
Adriana La Cerva Fiancée of Christopher Moltisanti and Crazy Horse club manager in Long Branch, New Jersey Deceased Executed by Silvio Dante in the fifth season episode, "Long Term Parking".
Raymond Curto Capo, Soprano family Deceased Died as a result of a stroke in the sixth season episode, "Members Only".
Jack Massarone Business associate, Massarone Construction Corp. founder and CEO, Deceased Executed on orders from Tony Soprano in the fifth season episode, "Rat Pack" after having aroused suspicions of Patrick Parisi.
Jimmy Petrille Consigliere, Lupertazzi family Unknown, presumably Petrille has since entered the Witness Protection Program (although this has not been mentioned). N/A
Eugene Pontecorvo Soldier, Soprano family, no-show carpenter Deceased Committed suicide by hanging in the sixth season episode, "Members Only". The amount of information that he contributed, if any, is highly questionable.
Carlo Gervasi Capo, Soprano family, Unknown. Turned informant on the series finale "Made in America". His future and the ramifications of his testimony against Tony are unknown. Became informant due to son, wannabe mobster Jason being arrested for drug dealing.

FBI agents

Chief Frank Cubitoso

FBI chief of Newark FBI Organized Crime Division Task Force 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. When Tony is arrested for the stolen airline tickets he tells Frank to "not expect any more deli trays coming your way", alluding to a deli tray sent to Cubitoso on his birthday, which Cubitoso donated to a local charity. Tony also sends him platters on Columbus Day, Christmas and all the other statutory holidays. He also pressures Adriana La Cerva into wearing a wire, which leads to her confession and eventual death. When Agent Sanseverino worries after Adriana disappears, Cubitoso decides it is time to move on. He was also the agent whose idea it was to bug Green Grove Retirement Community when Tony Soprano, Jimmy Altieri and Larry Boy Barese move in their mothers, despite other agents' skepticism. When Livia Soprano passes away, at the funeral arranged by Tony, he sends flowers on behalf of the Newark FBI Organized Crime Division Task Force.

Agent Ron Goddard

Agent Harris' new partner in the Joint Terrorism Task Force and was stationed in Pakistan. Along with Harris, he approached Tony at his home, requesting that Tony inform them should he come across any terror-related information in his line of work. When asked by Tony about how the war on terrorism goes, Ron mentions that he didn't mind working on the task force other than not sleeping and that he missed his wife and children. Harris would often bring Goddard to Satriale's to ostensibly show him that the store makes the best pulled pork sandwiches in the state.

Agent Ron Gosling

An agent who handled Eugene Pontecervo before his suicide. He hints to Eugene about Ray Curto being an informant. He tells Eugene that the FBI did not approve of his plans to move to Fort Lauderdale, Florida with his family and leave the mob lifestyle.

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. He is an homage to famous New York City Detective Sonny Grosso who helped reveal the French Connection. Tony says that Grasso is a valentine with his name as that if he wasn't for his last name they'd have him sweeping up at the office, and implies that the other FBI agents probably search him before he leaves work to go home every day. Tony thinks that Grasso is arresting "his own people", fellow Italians to get promoted.

Agent Dwight Harris

Agent Skip Lipari

An FBI agent who handled Big Pussy Bonpensiero. He has been an FBI agent since 1989. He gets angry at the bureau when he is passed over for the Special Agent in Charge position to a Samoan who had only been out of FBI Academy for three years. 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 he is there to help the federal government. Pussy tells Skip that he lost all respect in Tony when Tony sent him out to look for AJ's science teacher Mr. Miller's Saturn that had been stolen. After his release from prison he tells Skip he wants to lecture the FBI on organized crime in psychology and criminology, lecturing on organized crime, something Skip says that he may help him out with. Pussy tells Skip that after he is released from his two-year sentence in Lewisburg Prison he wants to be relocated to Scottsdale, Arizona because of the amount of sunshine the state has in the year, golfing and the New York Giants hold their spring training there. Bonpensiro gives Skip a gift of Johnnie Walker Gold but he declines the gift and instead tells Pussy that he'll donate it to the fireman's hall. Chief Cubitoso warns Lipari that he could be risking getting too close to Bonpensiero himself. He believes that Bonpensiero is starting to suffer from "one of the worst cases of Stockholm syndrome since Patricia Hearst, the worst he's ever seen". He repeatedly tells Sal that he is not an FBI employee but a cooperating witness. During a meeting at a party store, Sal coincidentally is seen by mob associate 'Jimmy Bones' and introduces Skip as "Joe from Dover, Delaware" without much success in holding up the story. This later leads to Bonpensiero murdering Jimmy to cover up his connection with the FBI. Sal tries to trap Christopher in a RICO predicate with Tony by offering to get his girlfriend a BMW M3 convertible and give the information to the FBI. When Pussy fails to follow Moltisanti to a hijacking job involving Pokeman cards Sal hits a 7-11 clerk riding a bicycle that leaves in a coma. Somehow, Skip gets the police to lay off the leaving-the-scene-of-an-accident charge when they were investigating the crash. He is investigating the murder of Waldemar Wyzchuk who was killed in car bomb hit that allegedly was plotted by Tony Soprano as a message to settle disputes over some DiMeo family's associates encroaching upon the South Jersey and Philadelphia shy business. FBI agent Skip Lipari makes references to him in a conversation. Bonpensiero was seen by the FBI having dinner with Wyzchuck in Atlantic City, New Jersey, a few weeks before the car bombing. Lipari may have suspected that Bonpensiero was involved in the Matthew Bevilaqua murder, but apparently did not report it. He tells Sal that there was a witness to the Bevilaqua murder. Skip says that his father was a plumber.

Agent Joe Marquez

Agent Harris' partner from 2000 to 2001 while working on the DiMeo crime family investigation. Tony makes fun of his Portuguese heritage by asking him "Weren't there any jobs down at the Post Office?" He is a fan of the New York Mets along with Dwight Harris and Tony and likes the baseball player Gerald Williams (baseball).

Agent Robyn Sanseverino

An FBI agent who handled Adriana La Cerva after she became very resentful against Agent Ciccerone. Agent Sanseverino explains to Adriana that she became an FBI agent because her sister was paralyzed by her boyfriend's reckless use of a gun. In order to take a stand against men like him, she became an agent. She has a daughter which was unknown to Adriana. She also handled capo Raymond Curto just before his death from natural causes. Robyn is the agent that passes the information about the alleged sexual tryst between Tony and Adriana to the FBI, believing it to be true. Adriana blames her ulcerative colitis on the pressure being placed on her by Robyn and the FBI. She confides to Robyn that when Chris was in drug rehab Vito Spatafore kept calling her, asking if she needed anything and was okay, and she didn't tell Chris because he would have killed Vito. Robyn put Adriana on a mailing list for brochures from a drug rehabilitation clinic in Hazelton, New Jersey that gets Christopher mad at Adriana. She hints to Adriana that Richie Aprile and Pussy Bonpensiero are dead and not in the Witness Protection Program, despite what Tony Soprano and the others say.

Agent Smyj

Played by Brian Smyj, a Hollywood stuntman and stunt coordinator, he is sometimes present at meetings about the Soprano/DiMeo crime family investigation. Agent Smyj's first name is never mentioned. His last name is pronounced Smy.

Agent Deborah Ciccerone-Waldrup

Deborah is a special agent who went undercover as "Danielle Ciccolella from Whippany, New Jersey" to befriend Adriana and to find out information about Christopher Moltisanti's relationship with Tony Soprano. She is married to FBI Special Agent Mike Waldrup and has a child with him. Before going as an undercover her experience was limited to performing Background checks. She poses as a wealthy, potential trophy-wife, girlfriend or mistress interested in the gangster world and initially makes contact with Adriana in Nutley, New Jersey. Her cover job is working for Lilac Personal Shopping which is a omnichannel retailer and claims to have once provided the entire front line for the New Jersey Jets with Christmas gifts. When Adrianna asks if she could get Christopher and her tickets, she says that she had since lost the account. She drinks Starbucks and has a penchant for high heels. When Chris and Adriana become engaged she thinks that Adriana might retract her cooperating witness deal and not want to testify against Tony Soprano. She wore a wire and recorded conversations with Adriana, some of which she once said were very private. Her usefulness as an undercover agent ended after Christopher made a pass at her causing Adriana to break off their friendship after Christopher lied and said Danielle initiated it. However, she continued to work on the Soprano task force. She told Adriana that she had a sister and offered to get her an appointment with an obstetrician/gynecologist specializing in reproductive endocrinology and infertility, as her sister worked in New York City with one. Paulie Germani reportedly was interested in Danielle. Christopher thinks that Danielle is a lesbian because she turned down his advances. She was wearing a wire on some occasions when socializing with Adriana. She meets Adriana at a bakery in East Hanover Township, New Jersey after her Danielle identity is dropped. Tony once asked Adriana about her friend Danielle, as he was attracted to her, she awkwardly tells Tony that she drowned while on a picnic, hence her disappearance. In the episode "Long Term Parking," Adrianna finally tells Christopher about Deborah's true identity, after revealing her own involvement with the FBI to him.

Agent Mike Waldrup

Husband and fellow FBI agent of Deborah Ciccerone-Waldrup who lives in Nutley, New Jersey. While he does work in the Newark, New Jersey Division of the FBI, he does not work on the Newark Organized Crime Task Force with his wife Deborah. He does not like his wife's dog. Takes care of their baby when Deborah talks to Adriana on a special phone line hooked up in their bedroom to act as the phone for "Lilac Personal Shopping". He worries about their baby being colicky from it coughing so much while lying in its crib.

FBI Technician

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 and took it to her dorm room at Columbia University. Throughout the show he usually dons disguises as a plumber, air conditioning repairman, Department of Environmental Protection Water Supply and Geoscience Employee, County of Essex, New Jersey Mosquito Abatement Service worker or gardener. He seems to have a knowledge of heating, ventilation, refrigeration and air conditioning systems and the principles of thermodynamics, fluid mechanics and heat transfer. He is the member of the team that informs the FBI that the Soprano home's 120-gallon water heater is on the verge of exploding and flooding the basement during their surveillance of the house. The FBI declines to inform Tony of their observation. In the episode "Mr. Ruggiero's Neighborhood," his predictions are correct and the tank does explode causing serious damage to the basement.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Douglas Howard, "Tasting Brylcreem: Law, Disorder and the FBI in The Sopranos", Reading the Sopranos
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