Todd Smith spearheaded the federal investigation that brought down Chicago’s biggest drug traffickers, twin brothers Margarito and Pedro Flores.In the mid-2000s, the Drug Enforcement Administration agent was on a team that started arresting street-level gang members and worked their way up to the twins — and eventually, the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel himself, Joaquín Guzmán Loera, known as “El Chapo.”“One of the things I was primarily involved with was with the twins’ case,” Smith said in an interview Monday.“Eventually I ended up taking it over,” he says of the case against the Flores brothers, “but I was [originally] in charge of arresting the local distributors — mostly street gang members.”Now Smith is the special agent in charge of the DEA's Chicago field office, promoted to the job this month after serving in other high-level positions in Washington and Chicago.He says he’s ready to apply his knowledge of cartels in Mexico and Colombia to tackle some of the city’s biggest drug problems, including a surge of cocaine and an explosion in the sale of pills containing fentanyl and methamphetamine.The Sinaloa cartel is fractured but remains a key source of drugs here. Another major drug source is the hyper-violent Jalisco New Generation Cartel, also based in Mexico and headed by fugitive Ruben Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho.” The wanted poster U.S. officials have circulated for the capture of “El Mencho,” the reputed head of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.U.S. Justice Department Smith says the Flores case is still paying dividends, most recently with narco-terrorism charges brought last year in Chicago against Oscar Manuel Gastelum Iribe, known as “El Musico,” the reputed head of the Beltran Leyva cartel.In an email, one of the twins, Margarito “Jay” Flores, told the Chicago Sun-Times, “I have nothing but respect for” Smith.“There is no one better suited to lead the Chicago DEA office. I’m also aware of his background with Customs and Border Protection prior to DEA, which I believe adds valuable perspective to his leadership.”Smith, 46, began his law enforcement career with U.S. Customs and Border Protection before he joined the DEA as an agent in the Chicago field division in 2004.“In all of my interactions with Todd, he was always professional, respectful, and extremely sharp. He didn’t just want answers, he wanted to understand the ‘why’ behind them. He was a thinker more than a talker, very observant, detail-oriented and driven by common sense. He asked the right questions and always followed up, which stood out to me.” Margarito Flores.Provided Flores now works as a consultant to law enforcement agencies on how to target drug cartels.“To be honest, Todd was one of the reasons I decided to pursue law enforcement training and education,” says Flores, who served a 14-year prison sentence along with his brother. They pleaded guilty to importing tons of cocaine into the United States and got their lenient sentences for cooperating against El Chapo.Margarito Flores says he and Smith haven’t spoken recently. Related Ex-Chicago drug kingpin tied to Sinaloa cartel says he forgives man who kidnapped his twin brother Smith says he’s now focused on stopping the flow of fentanyl and methamphetamine into northern Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin, the three states within the Chicago DEA’s field division. Cocaine and heroin are always on the DEA’s radar, too, but merging designer drugs like xylazine, known as “tranc,” also have become a big concern.Asked why opioid deaths in Chicago and across the nation have fallen in recent years, Smith says the answer is complicated, but includes stepped up law enforcement, expanded availability of the overdose reversal drug naloxone, and changes in the composition of counterfeit oxycodone pills that contain deadly fentanyl.Last year, testing of seized counterfeit oxycodone pills found 29% of them contained a lethal amount of fentanyl — two milligrams or more — compared with 70% of the pills tested at the peak of the opioid epidemic in the Chicago region, Smith says.Counterfeit Adderall pills have also emerged as a vexing problem here. In 2025, the DEA office in Chicago seized about 500,000 pills containing highly addictive methamphetamine, 13 times more than in 2014, Smith says. Adderall is prescribed to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.“Unbeknownst to a lot of people, they think they're buying an Adderall pill online but it’s really counterfeit Adderall that contains methamphetamine,” he says.Smith says the DEA’s Chicago field division has seen an increase in DEA cases that have been prosecuted in the Cook County court system since State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke took office last year. He says he plans to meet with her next week to discuss continuing those efforts.Smith says he’s also pushing a national DEA initiative called Fentanyl Free America, designed to carry out the Trump administration's pledge to combat the fentanyl crisis. His office and others across the country have hired community outreach specialists, a new DEA position.“Historically, it was a collateral duty for an agent, so it took an agent off the street to focus on community outreach. Now at DEA in Chicago, we have one person dedicated to that full-time trying to improve partnerships within the schools, within the Chicago Police Department, in their CAPS department, and then also with community organizations,” he says.As Smith begins his new job as head of the Chicago DEA field division, his predecessor, Shane Catone, has taken over a newly created regional office that includes the Chicago field division, along with others in St. Louis, Detroit, Louisville and Omaha, Nebraska. Related Secret DEA lab examines cocaine surging into Illinois and surrounding states ...read more read less