The agent, with 21 years of experience, investigated fentanyl laboratories and the operation of cartels in Mexico.
President of the United States, Donald Trump, nominated Terrance C. “Terry” Cole on Tuesday as director of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
With more than 21 years of experience in the agency, Cole has held various key positions in the fight against drug trafficking in Mexico, Colombia, Afghanistan, and the Middle East, and has stood out for his work in identifying fentanyl laboratories operated by Mexican cartels.
Cole’s nomination comes at a time when the United States maintains a strategy of pressure on Mexico to stop the trafficking of synthetic drugs, a priority issue for the DEA and the Republican administration.
Cole joined the DEA in 1999 and held various leadership positions within the agency, including chief of staff and executive director of the DEA’s Global Operations chief. Among his international assignments, he was stationed in Colombia, Afghanistan, and Mexico City, where he played a key role in anti-drug intelligence operations.
Cole was the DEA’s acting regional director for Mexico, Canada, and Central America during the Donald Trump administration (2017-2021). In this role, he oversaw investigations into drug trafficking and the role of cartels in the production and distribution of fentanyl and methamphetamines.
According to his testimony after retiring from the agency in 2020, Cole identified between 10 and 20 clandestine fentanyl laboratories in the country, a statement that contrasted with the position of the then government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, which denied the production of this drug in its territory.
In subsequent interviews with Breitbart News, Cole detailed how these labs used large pill presses capable of manufacturing millions of pills in a single day, and how the Sinaloa Cartel had recruited chemists from Mexican universities to improve their production processes.
Cole also analyzed the trafficking routes of chemical precursors from China to Mexico, highlighting that the cartels have sought to create new synthetic versions of fentanyl to reduce their dependence on foreign inputs.
One of the most relevant episodes of Cole’s career in Mexico was his presence in the country during the arrest in the United States of the former Secretary of National Defense (Sedena), Salvador Cienfuegos, in October 2020, an event that generated a diplomatic crisis between both nations.
After he retired from the DEA in 2020, Cole was appointed Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security in Virginia, where he led 11 state agencies and supervised more than 19,000 employees. From this position, he promoted policies of greater control over fentanyl and drug trafficking, aligned with the federal strategy against opioids.
In October 2024, former congresswoman Mary Bono interviewed him and he pointed out that Mexican cartels act with impunity in the face of the chemical war that has been undertaken from Mexico and China, particularly due to the fentanyl production chain.
He also assured that Mexico had become a training camp where fighters from other countries arrived to train the cartels.
“We are seeing Mexico become a terror training camp similar to what we saw in the Middle East years ago. Most foreign fighters and their organizations arrive in Mexico, establish base camps that allow Mexicans not only to hone their capabilities to bring those poisons to the US, and now use military-type intelligence against officers.”
Fentanyl, his priority
One of his biggest
One of his biggest challenges will be the fentanyl crisis. (Illustrative Image Infobae)
If the US Senate confirms his appointment, Cole will take office in a context of crisis over fentanyl, which in recent years has become the main cause of overdose deaths in the United States.
The DEA has repeatedly pointed out that most of the fentanyl entering the United States comes from clandestine laboratories in Mexico, where cartels manufacture it from chemical precursors acquired in China.
Cole has defended the use of technology and artificial intelligence to track drug trafficking operations and improve international cooperation in the detection of chemical substances used for the production of synthetic drugs.
He has also been a critic of the recreational use of marijuana, arguing that legalization in some states has weakened the fight against drug trafficking.
Source: NFOBAE
