An Illinois man was recently named the special agent in charge of the Homeland Security Investigations Chicago area.
R. Sean Fitzgerald previously served as HSI-Chicago's deputy special agent in charge, brings to his new job "a wealth of international and domestic operations experience," according to a Nov. 30 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement news release.
"HSI Chicago has a complex mission, and I couldn’t be prouder to join this team of stellar law enforcement professionals," Fitzgerald said in the release. "Having worked with the special agents, victim assistance specialist, intelligence analyst and a multitude of other professionals assigned to this area of operations, I have seen firsthand the impact they make to public safety each and every day. There is no place that I’d rather serve my community in this capacity than amongst the professionals at HSI Chicago and our law enforcement partners here."
As head of HSI Chicago, Fitzgerald will lead the field office's senior leadership team to oversee investigative, analytical and administrative operations throughout HSI Chicago's area of responsibility, which includes five offices and two posts of duty throughout Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin, the release reported.
Fitzgerald's more than two-decade career began as a special agent in Chicago in 2002. In 2010, he transferred to the Office of International Affairs, where he served as an HSI representative with the HSI Attache in Mexico City, focusing primarily on transnational narcotics trafficking and money laundering, according to the release.
Two years later, Fitzgerald returned to HSI Chicago to take up the post of group supervisor for the Financial Investigations Group, serving for three years before he transitioned to an operations manager within HSI Domestic Operations at HSI Headquarters in Washington, the release reported. Fitzgerald subsequently served in other capacities within Domestic Operations, including as special assistant to the deputy assistant director, and an acting operations chief.
In 2017, Fitzgerald was promoted to assistant special agent in charge for HSI Chicago, overseeing the Chicago Narcotics, Undercover Operations and the Financial Investigations groups. In that position, Fitzgerald also headed up the Human Trafficking and the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force groups, according to the release.
