{"id":148566,"date":"2025-08-08T12:31:42","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T17:31:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.worldtribune.com\/?p=148566"},"modified":"2025-08-08T12:31:42","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T17:31:42","slug":"fbi-bostons-sanctuary-sheriff-arrested-on-federal-extortion-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/fbi-bostons-sanctuary-sheriff-arrested-on-federal-extortion-charges\/","title":{"rendered":"FBI: Boston&#8217;s sanctuary sheriff arrested on federal extortion charges"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #808080;\"><em>by<\/em><\/span> <span style=\"color: #006699;\"><strong>WorldTribune<\/strong> <span style=\"color: #808080;\"><em>Staff \/ <\/em><\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #808080;\"><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.worldtribune.com\/category\/breaking\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #006699;\"><strong>247 Real News<\/strong><\/span><\/a><span style=\"color: #808080;\"><em> August 8, 2025 <\/em> <\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Suffolk County, Massachusetts Sheriff Steve Tompkins has been arrested on federal extortion charges, the FBI announced on Friday.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_148567\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-148567\" style=\"width: 351px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-148567\" src=\"https:\/\/www.worldtribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/stompkins.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"351\" height=\"237\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-148567\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sheriff Steve Tompkins<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cAs a result of an FBI Boston investigation, Suffolk County Sheriff Steven Tompkins has been taken into custody in Fort Lauderdale, Florida for allegedly extorting $50,000 from the owner of a national cannabis retail company seeking to do business in Boston,\u201d the FBI said.<\/p>\n<p>Tompkins, 67, was indicted by a federal grand jury on two counts of Extortion Under Color of Official Right, the Department of Justice announced.<\/p>\n<p>The charges each carry a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000.<\/p>\n<p>In 2019, Tompkins kicked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) out of Suffolk County jails. Boston, which is in Suffolk County, is a sanctuary city for illegal aliens.<\/p>\n<p>United States Attorney Leah B. Foley said:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMr. Tompkins is a sitting Sheriff, responsible for over 1,000 employees, who was elected by the good people of Suffolk County. Today, he is alleged to have extorted an executive from a cannabis company, using his official position as Sheriff to benefit himself. Elected officials, particularly those in law enforcement, are expected to be ethical, honest and law abiding \u2013 not self-serving.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHis alleged actions are an affront to the voters and taxpayers who elected him to his position, and the many dedicated and honest public servants at the Suffolk County Sheriff\u2019s Department. The people of Suffolk County deserve better. Public corruption remains a top priority for my administration and we will continue to investigate and prosecute anyone who uses their position of trust and power for their own gain.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">\ud83d\udea8BREAKING: As a result of an FBI Boston investigation, Suffolk County Sheriff Steven Tompkins has been taken into custody in Fort Lauderdale, Florida for allegedly extorting $50,000 from the owner of a national cannabis retail company seeking to do business in Boston. Learn\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Pv4Hv4cfqd\">pic.twitter.com\/Pv4Hv4cfqd<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 FBI Boston (@FBIBoston) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FBIBoston\/status\/1953830328545530126?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 8, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.worldtribune.com\/beat-the-press\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #ad3434;\"><strong> Beat <span style=\"color: #333399;\"> The Press <\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by WorldTribune Staff \/ 247 Real News August 8, 2025 Suffolk County, Massachusetts Sheriff Steve Tompkins has been arrested on federal extortion charges, the FBI announced on Friday. \u201cAs a result of an FBI Boston investigation, Suffolk County Sheriff Steven Tompkins has been taken into custody in Fort Lauderdale, Florida for allegedly extorting $50,000 from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":148567,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,5],"tags":[350,6],"class_list":["post-148566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","category-exclusives","category-world-tribune","tag-fbi-bostons-sanctuary-sheriff-arrested-on-federal-extortion-charges","tag-worldtribune-com","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}