When Sheila Lyons started with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration three decades ago, no women were running any of the agency’s field divisions.
Now, Lyons, newly appointed as the first female special agent-in-charge of the Chicago field division covering northern and central Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin, is one of five women heading one of the DEA’s 23 field divisions.
"It’s a real honor to be able to finish my career in the city that I was born and raised in and started in, back in 1992," Lyons said.She grew up in Hometown, a city of 4,300 on the southwest edge of Chicago, in a family of "strong women," with three sisters and a brother, and plans to mentor female DEA agents and local police officers who are part of a DEA task force.
She said her top goal is to fight Mexico’s Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels, which supply Chicago with fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana. "It’s everywhere, this awful, terrible challenge of fentanyl," Lyons said. "It’s in every suburb. It’s in every corner of the city. It’s in every state in the union. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen in my 30 years in law enforcement."
"I’m hyper-aware that my family and my sons are just as vulnerable as anyone to fall into this situation," Lyons said.
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