The federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has requested that the U.S. Justice Department’s internal watchdog investigate allegations that DEA agents permitted hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills to reach the streets of New Mexico. This decision follows an Associated Press investigation revealing that agents monitored major synthetic opioid shipments without seizing them, a strategy employed between 2023 and 2025 to build larger criminal cases.
In a letter sent to the U.S. Justice Department's Inspector General, DEA administrator Terry Cole stated that an internal probe is necessary due to the significant public attention and the questions raised about the agency's operational decisions, supervisory oversight, and its response to concerns. Cole emphasized that this request should not diminish confidence in the professionalism or integrity of DEA personnel or the investigative decisions made. He added that the DEA would implement any identified improvements, noting that strong institutions benefit from objective oversight and a commitment to continuous assessment.
Current and former DEA agents told the AP that the investigative tactic, known as allowing counterfeit painkillers to "walk," posed a risk to public safety in New Mexico, a state heavily impacted by the fentanyl epidemic. These agents suggested the strategy may have contravened Justice Department rules designed to protect communities from the drug, which the White House has designated as a "weapon of mass destruction."
The AP investigation cited three current and former agents and government records, including an internal report detailing a 2023 delivery of 74,000 pills that the DEA observed at an Albuquerque mobile home park. One agent, David Howell, first voiced serious concerns about this strategy in a 2023 whistleblower complaint and later spoke with the AP, describing the approach as one that "poisoned our community to make cases."
Previously, a DEA spokesperson told the AP that public descriptions implying the agency knowingly allowed fentanyl into communities are false and misrepresent the facts.
New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham also requested that the state’s attorney general examine whether the DEA's actions violated state law. In a statement, she described the decisions as "reckless and dangerous" and asserted that the DEA was aware of potential fatalities if these pills reached communities but allowed it to happen.