You’re forgiven for not remembering the second Trump administration’s first choice to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

The announcement came in the wake of the 2024 presidential election, and Hillsborough, Florida, County Sheriff Chad Chronister wasn’t exactly a household name. After finding himself in the national spotlight, with longtime DEA observers questioning his preparedness and position on marijuana rescheduling and Trump’s conservative Christian allies casting their own suspicions about his character, Chronister lasted about as long as a presidential tweet.

Announced for the job on Nov. 30, he was out by Dec. 2. After Chronister said he withdrew from consideration to lead the U.S. anti-drug response worldwide, President Donald Trump thumped him, snorting on Truth Social that “…he didn’t pull out, I pulled him out, because I did not like what he said to my pastors and other supporters.”

Goodbye Chronister, hello DEA veteran Derek Maltz. 

Touted as a “passionate, dedicated career special agent,” Maltz served 28 years before retiring in 2014. He appeared to be an acceptable selection to replace Anne Milgram, who had just cleaned out her office. Maltz was appointed acting administrator on Jan. 21, calling it “the honor of my lifetime. I promise to lead the men and women of DEA with integrity and grit.”

What’s more, he was comfortable championing Trump’s tough drug rhetoric on FOX News. He seemed like a natural for the duty — until he didn’t. After less than two months on the job, Maltz was out without even a mention in the Justice Department March 13 press statement announcing the nomination of former DEA veteran Terry Cole, who had several foreign assignments but spent much of his career in the wilds of Dallas.

Cole’s selection has set off a buzz within the DEA’s network of current and former agents. It’s also sent reporters who monitor the narco world and the legalized cannabis industry scrambling to learn more about him. Cole is being called a “veteran drug warrior” who has “taken a hardline approach to marijuana and has expressed support for the ‘Just Say No’ strategies of the 1980s,” by marijuana advocacy group NORML. Its leadership suspects a potential move to recriminalize cannabis at a time of broad support for its legal use and having its federal Schedule I status reduced.

Will the third time prove a charm for the Trump administration?

Consider retired DEA agent Mike Vigil officially skeptical. In his 31-year career, he rose from undercover agent to the head of DEA international operations, a position that put him in charge of anti-drug efforts outside the U.S. In Colombia, he was a supervisor in Medellín and Barranquilla, led field divisions in the Caribbean and San Diego and served as an assistant regional director in Mexico for more than six years.

Vigil respects his fellow former agents, but suspects Cole’s credentials have been inflated to help the Trump administration’s third swing at making the appointment. He notes that articles touting Cole’s retirement as “acting regional director of Mexico, Canada and Central America” and his recent role as Virginia’s secretary of public safety and homeland security as leading 11 public safety agencies in the state.

“He was just a liaison for the governor,” Vigil says. “They built it up. … As far as I can tell, the only supervisory position he had for a length of time in DEA was when he was in Dallas for over seven years as a group supervisor. He was never in charge of a field division, nor did he reach the level of senior executive service. His supervisory positions were very minimal.”

Multiple sources have confirmed that a story digging deeper into Cole’s professional performance at DEA was recently killed at The New York Post. Vigil says he was among the DEA veterans interviewed for the article.

Although Vigil’s no fan of the president, whom he believes has gratuitously harmed important counternarcotics relationships between the U.S. and Mexico, the former agent acknowledges that many DEA administrators have been selected more for political than professional reasons.

But the caliber of the selection does send a message to American counterparts around the world. So far, Trump is expressing his enthusiasm for Cole, whom he says will help him “MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN.”

Vigil counters, “The strategy that Trump has created is nothing more than political theater.”

If he lasts long enough, Cole might get a chance to prove him wrong.

John L. Smith is an author and longtime columnist. He was born in Henderson and his family’s Nevada roots go back to 1881. His stories have appeared in New Lines, Time, Readers Digest, Rolling Stone, The Daily Beast, Reuters and Desert Companion, among others.