Sopranos actor held on drug charge
An actor in The Sopranos has been arrested in connection with a drug-dealing sting.
Prosecutors in Queens allege that Richard Maldone, who played mobster Albert Barese in the mafia drama, offered the animal tranquilliser ketamine free to an undercover police officer. Such an offer is treated as a sale under New York law.
He denied a charge of criminal sale of a controlled substance on Thursday and was released on bail.
“The charge against Mr Maldone is about as fictitious as the character that he plays on The Sopranos,” said his lawyer Melvyn Roth.
The actor, who was jailed for assault in the 1990s, could face a maximum 15 years if convicted, prosecutors said.
A spokeswoman for programme makers HBO declined to comment on the arrest. Maldone also had a small part in the film Analyze That, starring Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal.
Maldone was one of 45 people arrested. Prosecutors claim that the suspects sold marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy and ketamine. They allegedly spent the profits in expensive restaurants, tanning salons and nightclubs in New York and the Hamptons.
