Florida Governor Ron DeSantis held a news conference on Thursday in Miami to announce his based crime-fighting initiatives.

DeSantis is focused on higher penalties for drug trafficking and sex crimes. More specifically, they are going after criminals who sell fentanyl or other controlled substances to minors.

"We are very proud that we are a law and order state," DeSantis said.

During his news conference, DeSantis said that Border Patrol has seized more than a quarter of a million "million multicolored fentanyl pills."

They're calling it "rainbow fentanyl," which looks like candy.

We've increased mandatory minimums for both fentanyl and fentanyl analogs. But one of the things we've been seeing, it's very troubling.

I mean, they will jam fentanyl into almost anything nowadays, so they'll actually do it and make it look like candy.

That's been dubbed a rainbow fentanyl.

Criminals are targeting the youngest and most vulnerable kids, and fentanyl isn't your average gateway drug – it's deadly.

So, DeSantis is cracking down.

Flordia will make it a first-degree felony to possess, sell, or manufacture fentanyl or other controlled substances to look like candy. They're adding a mandatory life sentence and a $1 million penalty if they're found to be targeting children with this type of "rainbow" fentanyl.

In addition to cracking down on sickos selling hard drugs to kids, DeSantis is exploring ways to facilitate capital trials for sex offenders, particularly pedophiles.

These people don't care, they are unrepentant, they don't care about these children, they will do whatever they can to satiate themselves at the expense of very vulnerable people.

At a minimum, DeSantis wants life sentences for sex offenders but believes "the only appropriate punishment answer to that would have been capital."

The governor pointed out that prosecutors do not get to "pick and choose which law they enforce," adding, "If you disagree with a law, run for the Legislature and change it, but you don't get to be a law unto yourself."

Here in Miami-Dade County, thanks to the great work that the men and women in uniform do every single day, the murder rate dropped by 15% between 2020 and 2021 and dropped a further 38% through the first half of 2022.

DeSantis wants more funding for law enforcement agencies in Florida to battle the fentanyl crisis and said that legislation would be put in place to prevent law enforcement from being defunded and left unable to do their jobs.

We're going to include another $20 million in my upcoming budget recommendations in local support funding for law enforcement agencies to increase efforts to interdict and apprehend the illicit sale and trafficking of fentanyl.