The order effectively strips authority from the head of the Metropolitan Police Department days after Trump launched a federal crackdown on crime in the city.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a directive issued Thursday evening that DEA boss Terry Cole will assume “powers and duties vested in the District of Columbia Chief of Police.” The Metropolitan Police Department “must receive approval from Commissioner Cole” before issuing any orders,

He’s spent more than 31 years as a law enforcement officer, including 22 at the DEA. At the agency, he worked in Oklahoma, New York and Washington. He spent time overseas in Colombia, Afghanistan and the Middle East. The agency said he fought drug cartels and transnational criminal organizations.

Two Texas men were sentenced to federal prison on Thursday for their role in a conspiracy to disguise themselves as Drug Enforcement Administration agents and steal marijuana from a Southern Oregon home in 2022.

Under the accord presented by the two sides to U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes, Trump administration lawyers conceded that D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser's appointed police chief, Pamela Smith, would remain in command of the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department.

Attorney General Pam Bondi has named the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration to be Washington D.C.'s emergency police commissioner. The National Guard, FBI and other entities are now working to follow President Trump's directive to clean up the nation's capital.

The DEA says that in North Dakota, close to 70 pounds of meth have been confiscated in 2025, the most in the past five years.

DEA head Terry Cole outlined the “unified effort" to reduce crime in Washington, D.C. after Trump declared a federal takeover of local police.