Do “lead” and “clue” have the same meaning in this context?

Native speaker’s answer
Rebecca
Yes, that's correct! You can consider "lead" to be a "trail" (of clues) to follow. In terms of investigative or criminal work, a clue is a piece of information that can help in the resolution of a case. Ex: The police were stumped. They couldn't come up with any leads. Ex: The police followed the lead given by an informant and were able to catch the suspect.