An actor who appeared in The Wire was among more than 60 people arrested in early morning drug raids in the Baltimore area, police said on Thursday.

Local television showed video footage of Felicia "Snoop" Pearson, 30, who played a killer of the same name in the television series, being led by drug enforcement agents from an apartment building to a waiting police van. Police declined to say what charges she faces.

The raids were the result of a seven-month investigation into a heroin, cocaine and marijuana operation that spread from the east side of the city to the west and northwest and into the county, DEA Special Agent Edward Marcinko said. Many of those arrested will face conspiracy charges.

Federal and local officials are planning to announce the prosecution of a large Baltimore drug gang at a news conference later.

The Wire, which ran from 2002 to 2008, was filmed in Baltimore and cast a spotlight on the city's struggle with poverty and drug violence through the stories of the city's police, drug organisations, schools and politicians.

This is not Pearson's first brush with the law. She was convicted of second-degree murder committed when she was 14, served five years of an eight-year sentence, and was released in 2000.

Pearson was arrested on a minor drug charge in 2008 when police went to her home to pick her up for refusing to cooperate as a witness in the trial of Steven Lashley, who was accused of stabbing three men, killing one, in an adult-entertainment district in Baltimore called the Block.

The Baltimore Sun reported last year that after Pearson informed the parties that she would invoke her right against self-incrimination if forced to testify, Lashley pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and two counts of assault. Court records show that Pearson was found not guilty on the drug charge.