Ex-agents question role of Trump’s DEA pick in violent overseas incidents

Former officials are asking lawmakers to investigate role that Trump’s DEA pick played in deadly overseas incidents.

Years ago, the Drug Enforcement Agency was shaken by a pair of particularly deadly overseas incidents: a botched operation by a US-vetted Colombian police squad that left 10 local officers dead, and a cartel’s brutal retaliation in a small Mexican town that killed dozens. In both Colombia and Mexico, according to CNN interviews with more than a dozen former DEA officials, key figures in those cases worked with an agent named Terrance Cole – who now is President Donald Trump’s nominee to run the agency. The exact nature of Cole’s role in those incidents has never been made public, in part because the DEA has declined to release two internal reports that former officials told CNN were produced in the wake of the bloodshed in Colombia and Mexico. Now, former DEA officials have sent an unsigned letter to lawmakers asking them to publicly question Cole about his actions in those cases and more broadly raising concerns about his record at the agency. Roughly a dozen former DEA officers contributed, the lead author said, about half of whom spoke with CNN. Most of the critics who spoke with CNN spent decades in the DEA and reached executive-level positions; several worked directly with Cole, though none had firsthand knowledge of his actions in Colombia or Mexico. Sen. Dick Durbin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee that will hold Cole’s confirmation hearing on Wednesday, has been speaking with some of those critics, his staff said. “I can confirm that Sen. Durbin’s staff has been in contact with multiple concerned parties about Terry Cole’s nomination,” said a spokesman for Durbin, Josh Sorbe. “As with all nominees, the Senator will continue to scrutinize Cole’s record and looks forward to the opportunity to further examine his record at his hearing.”