Part 1: Michele Leonhart - From City Cop to Making History Leading the DEA

Michele Leonhart went from sleeping in a Greyhound bus station because she couldn’t afford a hotel room to becoming the first female agent ever appointed by the President of the United States to lead the DEA.

Michele Leonhart was born to be an investigator. It started when someone stole her Huffy bicycle and she created the Little Girls Investigation Club to find it. She was so determined to get into law enforcement after graduating college that she applied to over fifty departments. Everyone rejected her, except Baltimore. After a chance encounter at a gas station with a drug dealer she set her sights on becoming a DEA agent.

Working undercover in Minnesota, the target was a trafficker connected to Pablo Escobar. The operation was going smoothly until she ran into him at the Federal building. Michele continued to make big cases, including bringing down the world's largest cocaine paste producer. Her leadership resulted in a presidential appointment to become the first female DEA agent to head the agency, serving both President George W. Bush and Barack Obama.