Shane R. Catone
As the Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the Chicago Division, Mr. Shane Catone leads approximately 600 DEA personnel assigned to 11 offices throughout three states, Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin, with a population of over 25 million. Mr. Catone has direct oversight for all strategic and tactical enforcement programs geared toward targeting, disrupting, and dismantling major transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), consolidated priority organization targets, and violent street gangs involved in large scale poly-drug trafficking, money laundering, and cybercrime activities. From 2021-2025, Mr. Catone was the Deputy Special Agent in Charge (DSAC) of the Chicago Division and assisted the SAC in executing and overseeing the division’s DEA mission.
Subsequent to his arrival to the Chicago Division in 2018, Mr. Catone served as an Assistant Special Agent in Charge from 2018-2021, where his responsibilities included serving as the chief of the Chicago High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) and Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) Strike Force.
From 2016-2018, Mr. Catone was an Inspector and Senior Inspector in the DEA’s Office of Professional Responsibility, where he conducted and supervised investigations for violations of federal/state law and the DEA’s Standards of Conduct. Additionally, Mr. Catone was a staff coordinator in the DEA’s Office of Congressional and Public Affairs, and performed liaison services on behalf of the DEA to the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, US counter-narcotics efforts, and DEA regulatory programs.
From 2011-2016, as a supervisory Special Agent in the DEA Miami Division’s West Palm Beach District Office, Mr. Catone led a multi-agency federal drug task force in conducting high-level investigations against international drug traffickers, including Colombian paramilitary groups and Mexican cartels responsible for sending multi-ton shipments of cocaine and heroin into the U.S. Mr. Catone and his enforcement and task force groups operated throughout Europe, Central and South America, the Caribbean, Africa, and China. During that time, Mr. Catone coordinated several high-risk operations involving multi-tiered criminal organizations and secured indictments and extraditions of numerous priority organizational targets.
In 2003, Mr. Catone joined the DEA as a Special Agent in the DEA Miami Division and was assigned to a HIDTA Enforcement Group. From 2003-2011, Mr. Catone directed and participated in numerous complex/international OCDETFand Priority Target Organization investigations. Mr. Catone’s investigations culminated in the arrest of over 200 defendants, the seizure of over 33 metric tons of cocaine, 200 kilograms of heroin, thousands of pounds of marijuana, and millions of dollars in assets and U.S. currency.
In 1992, Mr. Catone began his law enforcement career in the United States Marine Corps as a Military Police Officer and a member of the USMC Criminal Investigations Division.