DEA allowed fentanyl shipments in New Mexico, investigations

Between 2023 and 2025, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration permitted hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills to be distributed in New Mexico as part of a strategy to build larger criminal cases against traffickers, according to current and former agents and government records. The tactic, which involved monitoring but not seizing shipments of the synthetic opioid, has drawn sharp internal criticism as a dangerous gamble with public safety in a state experiencing a severe overdose crisis.

The DEA’s approach centered on allowing drug transactions to proceed to gather intelligence and target higher-level trafficking organizations. In one instance in June 2023, agents surveilled a delivery of 74,000 pills at an Albuquerque mobile home park but did not intervene. A former DEA supervisor, speaking anonymously, said he and colleagues allowed “millions” of pills to go unseized during a multi-state investigation last year. That investigation culminated in the DEA’s largest-ever fentanyl bust in May 2025, with over 3 million pills seized.

DEA Special Agent David Howell, a 19-year veteran, filed a formal whistleblower complaint in late 2023, alleging the agency knowingly allowed...