Alachua man arrested for buying drugs while on duty as Dixie County Sheriff’s Deputy
Staff report
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – James Richard Yakubsin, 41, of Alachua, was arrested yesterday and charged with purchase of a controlled substance, conspiracy to purchase a controlled substance, unlawful use of a two-way communications device, and misuse of law enforcement databases. Yakubsin was a deputy at the Dixie County Sheriff’s Office and was promoted to Sergeant in July. He was formerly a Marine and then worked at Gainesville Police Department (2007-2011) and High Springs Police Department (2012-2021) before moving to Dixie County Sheriff’s Office.
Dixie County Sheriff Darby Butler said, “After learning of this investigation and arrest, James Yakubsin’s employment with the Dixie County Sheriff’s Office was terminated immediately.”
High Springs Police Chief Antoine Sheppard told Alachua Chronicle that Yakubsin left HSPD voluntarily, but Sheppard said he had demoted Yakubsin when he became Chief and Yakubsin was “under discipline” when he left. Sheppard emphasized that Yakubsin’s issues at HSPD were “nothing like” the Dixie County allegations.
According to a press release from FDLE, the agency began its investigation in October after receiving allegations that Yakubsin was illegally purchasing methamphetamine drugs, Adderall, and Suboxone. The investigation shows he purchased drugs, both on- and off-duty, from two known drug dealers.
Yakubsin allegedly warned his drug dealers to “stay away” from another drug dealer he knew was being investigated and searched law enforcement databases to ensure there were no investigations or warrants for the drug dealers he used.
He was arrested by Alachua County Sheriff’s deputies on Tuesday and booked into the Alachua County Jail. The Office of the State Attorney, 8th Judicial Circuit, will prosecute this case.
All documents in the case are sealed, but the recommended bail amount on the warrant was $25,000.
Where is the mugshot???
Booking photos of law enforcement officers are not public under Florida law.
Well I’m sure it is always cover-up just like my son‘s murder case that dispatch and the police officers not being questioned on the nights they could saved my son when they didn’t send Matic and your newspapers also doesn’t tell the whole story news they don’t tell the whole story cover-up 😞💔💔💔💔
https://chng.it/m77sbdD6
Please read if you didn’t when I send you email?
Cover up of course
https://chng.it/m77sbdD6
Read through please no one wants to take responsibility and accountability for it
Is like my sons life‘s wasn’t matter at all💔💔💔💔
Nothing like the fox having the keys to the henhouse and we’ve seen more of that around here than most.
Unfortunely this guy just pissed his possible career away for dope. It is concerning that he has been at so many departments and seemingly was taking cuts in pay. GPD actually would be the highest pay out of all of them. He may have some issues that arose from his time in the military. I am curious to the reasons he was demoted and under discipline (Whatever that means) Anyway you look at it he committed crimes, besides buying meth he was more or less protecting drug dealers which is corruption at its finest. Plus endangering the public as well as the law enforcement community with his dangerous actions. He can never be trusted to enforce the law again and he will never be trusted by law enforcement again. Hopefully no one was killed or any witnesses disappeared because of his actions. Throw the book at him. He deserves a prison sentence. He will be a burden on the state because he will have to be in a protective/segregation unit within a prison. Very sad that he did this.
That’s bs lock him up put his mug shot up. No sympathy what if he was on drugs and driving patrol car and hit somewhere and killed. What if he was on drugs handling the call and just went ballistics and killed somebody no sympathy lock him up throw away the key.
Is the picture of the tweaked out looking officer at the top not a good enough picture? Who cares about his mugshot,HE’S RIGHT THERE!
North Florida will hire him twll him all tbe dirty ops come up here and get rehired Send him to perry Florida they hite all the ped0 cops too.
They left out the part that he was fired from the Gainesville Police Department before being hired at the High Springs Police Department.
Yah. He perjured himself by knowingly submitting a very inaccurate crash report at GPD, hence the firing from there.
There’s NO GOOD COPS LEFT!!!🤷🏾♂️🤷🏾♂️🤷🏾♂️
That’s not true. Like any other profession there are good and bad. Also just like the human race there good people and evil demons.
all police need to be drug tested and results MADE PUBLIC , they work for and Patrol us .
All police applicants are required to submit to a physical, drug testing/screening, polygraph, etc. They have some of the most stringent background checks done in the country. The backgrounds even go as far as credit history, prior military, neighborhood canvas. Tell me what profession is that extreme. Certainly not the city of Gainesville. No one knows why Yakobsin choose to go down this path, but he did. I find it funny that people act so differently when a cop gets in trouble. Hell Biden couldn’t pass a police background check. The simple fact is that Yakobsin screwed up and made choices that he will have to answer too. Unlike other people who will claim demographics or they are misunderstood as reasons for committing crimes and reduced sentencing Yakobsin will be punished at higher standards, and most like made an example of.
I was called a liar by him and taken to jail for 9 days until I could prove myself innocent. You are guilty until proven innocent. I had been working with the police department to help an elderly person and he said I was lying. What goes around comes around. He is right where he belongs.
Pathetic response! Evil exists all around us. There are many good cop’s willing to sacrifice their life to protect others.
Thank the unions, double edged sword in other industries too 😡
James Yakubsin you are a disgrace to the law enforcement profession.
So sad, a disgrace to all the honest LEO’s, your family and the USMC.
He is not a disgrace to his family!! He will be supported through this difficult time in his life. He messed up and he is atoning for that. I’m so glad to know that you are God to pass judgement on someone you don’t know. There are other professionals that use drugs it just doesn’t seem to make a grand entrance in the news. Look into health care professionals that are taking care of you and your family that may have addictions.
he is a fentanyl and meth TWEAKER supported by monthly ex-military government handout , thank you for arresting this criminal menace to society . Too many kids dying from these hard drugs around here . Give Him 20 years or more . This creep has proven he wont stop stealing , dealing , and slamming Hard Drugs …. SAD
FFS you’re his SISTER, ofcourse you’re gonna do all you can to defend this worthless, tyrannical, jackboot thug pig! Hopefully the only time he sees his kids for the next 10 years will be from behind a glass wall, through a recorded telephone. It’s only fair, given how many others he’s separated from their families, when he’s guilty of doing the same, but worse.
ANYONE who abuses the authority entrusted by this great state, to this level of stupidity fully deserves to rot. He knew the law, as well as the consequences just as good, arguably even BETTER as anyone else, and chose to go against that. Violating his oath. Not only to himself, but his family, Marine Corps, and his professional peers. Intentionally putting the public at risk, and law enforcement at a disadvantage by quite literally protecting drug dealers.
He brings a huge sense of disrepute to everyone mentioned above and is a black eye on local law enforcement in general.
The fact that you try to put on a facade and downplay this as just another non-event that had the unfortunate consequence of hitting the press is despicable. Made worse only by the fact you attempt to distract from the seriousness of the situation by bringing up hypotheticals from other industries such as healthcare – speaks volumes as to just how serious he DOESNT take this.
I cannot wait to see the judge throw the entire book at him. Hopefully his eyes are open just as big and he keeps them meth influenced reaction levels! Gonna need them both if he drops the soap.
Could not have said it better myself.
This is crazy, does he have a chronic pain or just an addiction from prior treatment of a workplace injury? That’s the only justifiable excuse.
He was injured in Iraq fighting for our country. He also has PTSD from wartime.
If true, thank you for clarifying.
Sounds like he should not have been a policeman then with those issues.
JeffK – His actions were unjustifiable. Chronic pain or addiction isn’t an excuse, it’s the reason.
According to any medical journal I’ve read – Meth doesn’t cure, or even help “chronic pain”, nor is it abused in place of pain pills. Dude is pushing poison himself, and protecting others who did as well. There’s just no excuse. Compounded by the fact he was law enforcement, this issue is made even worse. He sees what this scourge has done for the past 15 years as a LEO. No excuse at all.
Then coming home to his own innocent children, who then stand a much higher chance of being accidentally exposed to fentanyl. Absolutely atrocious.
Let’s not look for excuses, as unfortunate as it is; his family seems to have that part on lock.
Agreed!!
We may never know the reason why, safe it to say there are others out there in uniform who struggle with drug addiction.
Ours is a broken society.
Maybe he can be new security guard for SBAC superintendent.
James has been a problem since he first put on a uniform!!
In Gainesville he was fired for lying, in High Springs he was demoted after complaints were filed for calling an innocent person a liar and putting her in jail, and then he goes to Dixie County and buys drugs and protects drug dealers! No telling what else he has done in those departments. How can he do all this damage and keep getting hired on at PD’s???? That is what I would like to know.