Drug abuse & traffic

DEA Faces Probe Over Unseized Fentanyl in New Mexico

Was this a necessary sacrifice to dismantle cartels or a reckless gamble with New Mexican lives?

JUN 26·Updated JUN 30

DEA Faces Probe Over Unseized Fentanyl in New Mexico

Story

Above: Pill blister packages believed to contain fentanyl are displayed at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Northeast Regional Laboratory for testing in New York on May 7. Image credit: Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images

The Facts

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) asked the Dept. of Justice (DOJ) Office of the Inspector General to conduct an independent review of the agency's actions after a whistleblower alleged agents monitored but did not seize hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills in New Mexico between 2023 and 2025.
Breitbart
NPR
DEA whistleblower David Howell, a 19-year agent, filed a complaint in 2023 alleging agents watched but did not seize separate deliveries of 150,000 and 50,000 fentanyl pills. Howell said authorities could not confirm the unseized drugs did not contribute to overdose deaths.
NPR
Independent
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham asked state Attorney General Raúl Torrez to investigate whether federal agents violated state law by allowing fentanyl to remain on the streets, calling the decisions "reckless and dangerous."
Organ Mountain News
Office of the New Mexico Governor: Michelle Lujan Grisham
Three U.S. House members — Reps. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), Gabe Vasquez (D-N.M.) and Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.) — sent a letter to DEA Administrator Terry Cole demanding a briefing on the agency's fentanyl trafficking investigations in New Mexico within 30 days.
Santa Fe New Mexican
KUNM
The DEA's internal fentanyl protocols, adopted in 2017, required agents to seize fentanyl "whenever practicable," but those rules were rewritten in 2024 to grant law enforcement greater discretion in balancing public safety against investigative objectives.
Breitbart
Independent
While national overdose deaths fell 14% in the year ending January 2026, New Mexico recorded a roughly 21% increase, according to federal data cited by the AP and Albuquerque Journal. The state has led the nation in the increase in overdose deaths for two consecutive years.
Santa Fe New Mexican
Organ Mountain News

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The Spin

Government-critical narrative

The DEA let hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills flood New Mexico streets while overdose deaths spiked 21% — the worst increase in the nation. Agents watched precise deliveries happen in real time and did nothing, gambling community lives against the chance of a bigger bust. A decorated 19-year agent blew the whistle and got benched for it, which tells you everything about how seriously public safety was actually taken.

Albuquerque Journal

NBC 5 Dallas

Pro-government narrative

Controlled delivery is a globally recognized, legally sound tactic used to dismantle entire trafficking networks rather than just clip the edges. The DEA's strategy paid off with a record seizure of more than 3 million fentanyl pills in May 2025, proving the approach can work. Targeting cartel leadership does more long-term damage to the supply chain than seizing individual shipments ever could.