FLORIDA — The head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration believes America’s ongoing fentanyl crisis in the U.S. may be too big to get under control.
"I don’t think we’ll ever win this war, but this is a war we can’t afford to lose," Administrator Terrance Cole told Tampa Bay 28's I-Team Investigative Reporter Katie LaGrone recently.
WATCH: 'I don’t think we’ll ever win this war': DEA boss gets candid on fentanyl crisis
Cole, a career DEA agent, who was nominated to the position by President Trump and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in July 2025, recently sat down with LaGrone during the DEA’s inaugural Fentanyl Free America Summit in Orlando, Florida.
The summit, co-hosted by Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA), brought together stakeholders to fight the nation’s ongoing fentanyl crisis.
Cole attended the summit and focused on meeting families impacted by the fentanyl crisis.
During an approximately 20-minute interview with LaGrone, Administrator Cole discussed what the agency is doing different now to combat its resurgence and Mexican drug cartels who, he said, are responsible for manufacturing and distributing the deadly synthetic opioid here.
"The President has given us different tools. He's designated them [cartels] as foreign terrorists, which opens up different avenues for us to target. It opens up different relationships that we currently have with the Department of War and the intel community.This is about Americans first, and we need to remember that," he said.
Cole pointed to Florida as a state on the forefront of tackling the crisis and doing it right.
"Whether it's legislatively, whether it's law enforcement initiatives or whether it's bringing the community, parents, churches and all these amazing organizations together—when they see these changes occur with the synthetic opioids that are being sent from these foreign terrorists, they act very quickly," he said.
For months, Investigative Reporter Katie LaGrone has covered the resurgence of fentanyl in Florida. She’s spoken with families impacted by the drug and recently visited the DEA’s busiest drug lab to witness how DEA chemists are also starting to see levels of the opioid they haven’t seen in years.
Cole added how Florida’s geography and expansive coastline makes it a top gateway for the illicit drug trade and said cartels are actively operating in all 50 states, including Florida.
"I think the difference [in Florida] is the high intensity work that law enforcement is doing collectively," Cole explained. "That's all the federal agencies, that's state and locals, and our task forces. They're coming together under the President's directive with the Homeland Security task forces, and that’s leveraging the holistic approach of government towards these cartels."
When asked what success looks like in America’s ongoing battle against fentanyl, Cole said, "The success is when we have a fentanyl-free America. The success is when we hold the cartels fully accountable for this death and destruction here in the United States."
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