AP investigation finds DEA allowed fentanyl shipments in New Mexico while pursuing larger criminal cases
Internal records and agent testimony say the DEA monitored shipments of up to 100,000 fentanyl pills to build larger federal cases.
- Between 2023 and 2025, Drug Enforcement Administration agents in New Mexico permitted hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills to reach the streets to build larger federal cases against traffickers.
- Historically, the DEA has allowed drugs to 'walk' to track supply chains, but the Justice Department updated its 'Fentanyl Protocols' in 2024 to grant agents discretion in balancing public safety against investigation benefits.
- Whistleblower DEA Special Agent David Howell reported agents observed but did not seize separate deliveries of 150,000 and 50,000 fentanyl pills, while agents also monitored a 74,000-pill transaction in Albuquerque.
- Howell told The Associated Press the tactic showed 'willful blindness' that 'got people killed,' prompting Empower Oversight to request the Senate Judiciary Committee investigate the agency's actions.
- The DEA maintains descriptions suggesting it knowingly permitted fentanyl to reach communities 'are false and fundamentally mischaracterize the facts,' though a 2024 internal Justice Department review found the agency's decisions were reasonable.
68 Articles
68 Articles
'We poisoned our community': New Mexico DEA agents watched fentanyl hit the streets and did nothing to stop it reaching people
“We poisoned our community to make cases,” DEA Special Agent David Howell said in a series of interviews in New Mexico. “Through our own willful blindness, we get to say, ‘We don’t really know what happened to the drugs.’ But we 100% got people killed.”
Staggering amounts of fentanyl hit streets as the DEA watched and took no action, records show - The Boston Globe
DEA agents repeatedly monitored shipments of fentanyl pills, but did not seize them, as prosecutors sought to bring bigger criminal cases against traffickers, according to interviews and records reviewed by the Associated Press.
DEA allowed large shipments of fentanyl to reach users
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration allowed hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills to reach users in New Mexico between 2023 and 2025. The decision to monitor but not seize the shipments was part of a tactic to gather intelligence and build cases against major drug trafficking organizations, the Associated Press reported. David Howell, DEA special...
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