Initiators of extortion and theft put away (3)
I believe the answer is:
eat
'put away' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'initiators of extortion and theft' is the wordplay.
'initiators of' suggests taking the first letters.
The initial letters of 'extortion and theft' is 'EAT'.
(Other definitions for eat that I've seen before include "Scoff" , "Ingest" , "Do cats - bats? Do bats - cats? (Alice in Wonderland)" , "to do etching?" , "Devour" .)