The FBI arrested a Massachusetts sheriff for allegedly leveraging his position to extort $50,000 from a cannabis company executive seeking approval to do business. Suffolk County Sheriff Steven Tompkins, 67, was arrested in Florida and charged with two counts of extortion. Tompkins oversees approximately 1,000 employees in the Boston-area. “The citizens of Suffolk County deserve better, not a man who is accused of trading on his position to bankroll his own political and financial future,” FBI Boston Division Special Agent in Charge Ted Docks said in a statement. “Public servants must be held to the highest of ethical standards, and those falling short will be rooted out,” he added. BREAKING: The FBI has just ARRESTED Boston’s Sheriff, who has REFUSED to work with ICE on deportations in the city Suffolk County, MA Sheriff Steven Tompkins was booked on federal extortion charges after extorting $50K from a cannabis dealer trying to do business in the city pic.twitter.com/9ZNz3b1Dww — Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) August 8, 2025 ABC News has more: According to federal court documents, Tompkins had used his position as sheriff to force his way into buying pre-IPO (initial public offering) stock in a Boston cannabis company at a discounted price. When the investment later lost value, prosecutors alleged he demanded and received a full refund of his money. The scheme started in 2019 when the cannabis company, which wasn’t named in court documents, wanted to open a store in Boston, the indictment stated. The company needed Sheriff Tompkins’ help, according to the indictment, as his department would refer former inmates to work at the store, which was required by the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission for their state license. Federal investigators said Tompkins allegedly took advantage of this partnership. According to the indictment, he pressured a company executive, reminding them that he had helped with their license application. The executive feared Tompkins would end their partnership if they didn’t give in to his demands for stock, prosecutors said. After getting the shares in November 2020, court documents showed Tompkins initially saw his $50,000 investment grow to about $138,000 when the company went public. However, when the stock price later fell, prosecutors alleged Tompkins demanded his money back. The executive paid him through five separate checks, with some labeled as “loan repayment” to hide what the payments were really for, according to the indictment. The executive agreed to the demands for repayment, fearing Tompkins would use his position to harm their business operations, according to the indictment. “When someone entrusted with enforcing the law is accused of breaking it for personal gain, it undermines the public’s trust in every honest officer who wears the badge,” FBI Director Kash Patel told Fox News Digital. “The FBI will pursue corruption at every level, because no one is above the law. The people of Suffolk County, and the country, deserve leaders who serve them, not themselves,” he added. When someone entrusted with enforcing the law is accused of breaking it for personal gain, it undermines the public’s trust in every honest officer who wears the badge. The FBI will pursue corruption at every level, because no one is above the law. pic.twitter.com/eIoS5NirOH — FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) August 8, 2025 Fox News shared additional details: Tompkins was appointed sheriff of the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department (SCSD) in 2013, elected in a 2014 special election, and later re-elected to serve successive six-year terms. He made headlines in 2019 after booting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents out of the county jail, signing an eviction notice that required hundreds of illegal immigrant detainees to be moved out within 60 days, according to a report from the Boston Herald. According to court documents, a cannabis company applied in 2019 for a retail dispensary license in Boston through the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission (CCC). To meet the state’s Positive Impact Plan (PIP) requirement, the company partnered with the sheriff’s department, which agreed to screen and refer graduates from its re-entry program for work at the dispensary’s retail store. The company’s partnership with SCSD was formalized in a letter signed by Tompkins in 2019 and submitted with its dispensary license application in 2020. The cannabis commission approved the license in 2021 and renewed it in 2022 and 2023, with the company citing the partnership to meet the PIP requirement in each application. To raise capital for an initial public offering (IPO) and expand as a publicly traded company, executives sought multimillion-dollar investments from institutions and other high-net-worth investors—not the general public, according to court documents.