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'Wire' Actress Among 60 Arrested In Md. Drug Raids

BALTIMORE (WJZ)—It was like a scene out of the Baltimore-based hit show, "The Wire." The actress known as Snoop was one of 60 people arrested in a drug sting.

Mike Schuh has more from federal court.

Twenty-three people were indicted federally, 40 by state courts. Officials say they knocked out a major drug ring in East Baltimore involving 60 people.

Few people will know any of the 60 people arrested, except for one Felicia "Snoop" Pearson. She was the assassin on HBO's "The Wire."

Thursday morning, federal agents led Pearson away from her luxury apartment downtown.

She played a drug dealer on TV. But told WJZ in a 2006 walk around her old neighborhood that she'd put that life behind her.

"I never got high," Pearson said then. "I was just a strong person."

She's been in Jessup and back on the streets. It's near her old neighborhood and around the city that police arrested more than 60 people suspected in the marijuana and heroin trade.

The U.S. attorney calls the arrests part of a crackdown of a large Baltimore drug gang.

Late Thursday afternoon, the U.S. attorney and commissioner talked about what it took to make these arrests.

"This is one of the largest cases that we have prosecuted here in Baltimore," said Rod Rosenstein, U.S. Attorney.

"In this case, we made impact," said Ava Cooper-Davis, DEA Agent in Charge. "We got the top, we got the bottom, and we got everything in between."

"We got men and women out there right now hunting and seeking out even more," said Commissioner Fred Bealefeld.

There were 450 officers that were out on the street to track down everyone. Though there are indictments, not everyone has been rounded up. The 23 people charged federally were at the leadership level; the 40 charged by state were street workers. Snoop was charged for conspiracy at the state level.

This is not Pearson's first brush with the law. She was convicted of murder when she was 14. Three years ago, she witnessed a murder and refused to testify and was arrested for minor marijuana possession when officers went to get her.

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