The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has promoted an agent to serve as the Special Agent in Charge of the GBI’s Southeastern Regional Drug Enforcement Office in Metter.
The Southeastern Regional Drug Enforcement Office (SRDEO) covers a 39-county area in southeast Georgia, which serves the counties of coastal Georgia and southeastern Georgia.
The promotion of Tanya Arauz Cales was announced Wednesday. SAC Cales will be responsible for supervision of the staff/agents assigned to the unit and will oversee the administration of drug investigation operations and daily operations of the office.
From the news release:
SAC Cales has been with the GBI for 30 years and has held multiple positions in the organization. In April 1991, she began her law enforcement career as a Narcotics Agent assigned to the Local Violators Squad (LVS) in Atlanta. She was later promoted to Special Agent and assigned to the GBI Region 7 Field Office in Thomson.
Cales’ subsequent assignments were at the State Health Care Fraud Control Unit, the GBI D.A.R.E Unit as part of the Georgia D.A.R.E. training staff, and the GBI Training Unit as the GBI Training Coordinator. In 2005, she was promoted to the rank of Assistant Special Agent in Charge (ASAC) at the then Savannah Regional Drug Enforcement Office (Savannah RDEO). In 2010, Cales served as Commander for the East Central Georgia Drug Task Force. In 2014, ASAC Cales was assigned to the newly created Southeastern RDEO (which encompassed the area of the old Savannah RDEO, the Tri-Circuit Drug Task Force, and the East Central Georgia Drug Task Force).
Cales has been recognized for her service by the Naval Criminal Investigative Services (NCIS), received the GBI Judge Arthur Kaplan Lifesaving Award in 2009, was part of the Savannah RDEO when it received the Tactical Team Award for exceptional performance, and was part of the supervisor staff when SRDEO received the GBI Director’s Award (2016) and the GBI Deputy Director’s Award (2019) for Investigative Excellence.
SAC Cales graduated from Georgia Southern University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice in 1991 and received her Master of Public Administration degree from Columbus State University in 2006. SAC Cales has been a P.O.S.T. certified instructor since 1997 and became a Master Training Instructor in 2007. Cales is a certified instructor for Emergency Medical and Defensive Tactics, Driver Training (EVOC), and Taser training. Throughout her career, SAC Cales attended DEA Drug Unit Commander Academy, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Leadership Academy, and graduated from the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia (Session 235).
SAC Cales is from Warrenton, Warren County, GA and currently resides in Metter.
