By Steve Neavling
Thomas J. Sobocinski, who was serving as deputy assistant director of the International Operations Division at FBI headquarters, has been named special agent in charge of the bureau’s Baltimore Field Office.
Sobocinski’s career with the FBI began in 1998, when he investigated violent crime for the Fayetteville Resident Agency of the Charlotte Field Office in North Carolina. Following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he began focusing on counterterrorism cases.
In 2005, Sobocinski was promoted to supervisory special agent and assigned to the Counterterrorism Division at headquarters to work in the International Terrorism Operations Section.
In 2007, Sobocinski served as the FBI’s senior liaison to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. A year later, he transferred to the Washington Field Office as a counterterrorism supervisory special agent.
Sobocinski began working on a series of foreign assignments in 2009, when he was appointed assistant legal attaché in Kabul, Afghanistan. In 2011, he was promoted to legal attaché in Cairo, Egypt, before moving to London in 2013 to serve as the deputy legal attaché.
In 2016, Sobocinski became the assistant special agent in charge of the Intelligence Branch at the Washington Field Office, and in 2018, was promoted to section chief in the Counterterrorism Division at headquarters.
In 2019, he became deputy assistant director of the International Operations Division.
Before joining the FBI, Sobocinski was a police officer and special agent with the Secret Service. He received a bachelor’s degree in sociology and political science from the Purdue University and a master’s degree in security studies from the Naval Postgraduate School, Center for Homeland and Defense Security.
