Trump taps Florida sheriff as DEA administrator

President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday tapped Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration, replacing Anne Milgram.

In picking the Florida sheriff to lead the DEA, Trump has selected a law enforcement professional with three decades of experience working for the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office but seemingly little time in the national spotlight.

Trump announced the pick on Truth Social, writing that Chronister “will work with our great Attorney General, Pam Bondi, to secure the Border, stop the flow of Fentanyl, and other Illegal Drugs, across the Southern Border, and SAVE LIVES.”

The change in DEA leadership comes as the agency – and the nation – is still grappling with a drug crisis fueled by the flow of illicit fentanyl primarily made in Mexico with precursor chemicals from China.

Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid up to 50 times more potent than heroin, has been the catalyst for a staggering rise in overdose deaths. More than 100,000 people have died of overdoses each year for the past three years. But U.S. officials and experts credit enforcement efforts, changes in drug supply and an increased focus on public health measures with a sharp decline in deaths this year.

Milgram, in an op-ed published this week in USA Today, credited the arrests of high-level Mexican cartel members and Chinese chemical brokers, noting that fewer pills seized by law enforcement contain fentanyl.

“Seeing a decline in the number of deadly pills on the streets of America is further proof that our efforts are working,” wrote Milgram, who previously served as New Jersey’s attorney general.

Chronister responded to the pick on X, calling it “the honor of a lifetime” to be chosen by the president-elect and to serve as administrator of the DEA. “I am deeply humbled by this opportunity to serve our nation.”

Chronister has worked in the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office for the past 32 years, according to the sheriff’s office website.

In 2017, after Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee retired unexpectedly, Chronister was appointed as his replacement on Gee’s recommendation and has served in the role since. He successfully ran again in 2018 and 2020, and was reelected this year without opposition.

If the Senate confirms Chronister, he will inherit an agency tasked with dismantling domestic and international drug trafficking organizations flooding the streets with cocaine, methamphetamine, fentanyl and a panoply of synthetic drugs.

Despite geopolitical tensions with China, U.S. law enforcement agencies have rekindled relations with counterparts there after China agreed to crack down on exports of chemicals used to make drugs.

In Mexico, law enforcement relations with the United States have been strained after one of the country’s drug lords, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, was spirited out of the country by another Mexican trafficker and turned over to American authorities. The move surprised Mexican government officials and unleashed violence between factions of the Sinaloa cartel.

Chronister would enter an agency that has been roiled by the convictions of several former agents in corruption cases and scrutiny of Milgram’s hiring practices.

The incoming DEA administrator will also helm the agency as it handles a Biden Justice Department proposal to loosen restrictions on marijuana – a measure supported by Trump despite objections from other GOP leaders.

The Justice Department has proposed to reclassify marijuana from a tier reserved for substances such as heroin and LSD. The move to reclassify marijuana would not legalize the drug but would move it to Schedule III, a category that includes prescription drugs such as ketamine, anabolic steroids and testosterone.

The proposal met pushback internally at the DEA, which questioned whether reclassification violated international treaty obligations regarding drug control and if a federal health agency used the wrong legal standard in making its determination, according to a Justice Department legal opinion that sided with the Department of Health and Human Services. When officials submitted the proposed rule to reclassify marijuana in April, the paperwork was signed by Attorney General Merrick Garland, not Milgram.

The marijuana proposal will be considered in DEA administrative court; a preliminary hearing is scheduled for Monday. The proposal, if it goes through, would not be finalized until after Trump becomes president.