New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham has requested a criminal investigation into the Drug Enforcement Administration, alleging that federal agents permitted hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills to enter the state over a two-year period while pursuing larger drug trafficking cases. The governor asked the state's attorney general to examine whether the agency's actions violated New Mexico law.
This call for an investigation follows an Associated Press report detailing how DEA agents reportedly allowed significant fentanyl shipments to pass through New Mexico between 2023 and 2025. Agents allegedly made this choice to build cases against higher-ranking traffickers. The governor's action transforms a dispute over enforcement tactics into a question of whether federal agents acted unlawfully.
Current and former DEA agents indicated to the AP that this strategy constituted a gamble with public safety in a state heavily affected by the fentanyl epidemic. They suggested it may have contravened U.S. Justice Department rules designed to protect the public from fentanyl, a drug the White House has classified as a "weapon of mass destruction."
"There are no words to describe how reckless and dangerous these decisions were," Lujan Grisham stated. "Make no mistake: the DEA knew people would die if these pills made it into New Mexico communities, and the agency let it happen anyway."
The DEA has not immediately responded to a request for comment. The agency has previously stated that seizing every drug shipment is not feasible and asserted that "the investigative decisions at issue were lawful, reasonable under the circumstances and consistent with Department guidance." A DEA spokesperson, Amanda Wozniak, told the AP that claims suggesting the agency knowingly permitted fentanyl into communities are "false and fundamentally mischaracterize the facts."
Alex Uballez, former U.S. attorney in New Mexico, explained to the AP that drugs were sometimes left unseized due to his office's resource limitations and a belief that prosecuting larger organizations yields a greater impact than intercepting every suspected drug transaction.
It remains unclear if any fatal overdoses in New Mexico can be directly linked to the DEA's strategy. While overdose deaths nationwide decreased by 14% last year, government data indicates a 21% increase in New Mexico.
"New Mexican lives are not the federal government's cost of doing business," the governor said in her statement. "I plan to hold the federal government accountable for this disaster and will explore every possible avenue of action against the federal government to right these wrongs."
The AP investigation cited three current and former agents and government records, including an internal report concerning a 2023 incident where the DEA surveilled, but did not seize, 74,000 pills during a delivery at an Albuquerque mobile home park.
David Howell, a DEA whistleblower who filed a complaint highlighting the unseized fentanyl, recently spoke with congressional staffers. Empower Oversight, a whistleblower advocacy group representing Howell, has formally requested investigations by the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General.
Senator Bernie Moreno, a Republican from Ohio, described Howell's revelations as "a scandal of the highest order" and indicated on social media his intention to investigate the number of American lives potentially lost due to the DEA's alleged inaction.
Victim advocacy groups have also expressed concern, stating that the DEA's approach in New Mexico appears to contradict its public awareness campaign, "One Pill Can Kill," which warns that small amounts of fentanyl can be fatal. Michael Glownia, who lost his daughter to fentanyl in 2023 and founded a nonprofit for families affected by the drug, stated, "Knowing the Justice Department had guidelines to seize the opioids whenever practical — and the fact these were ignored — is truly heartbreaking."