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Staggering Amounts of Fentanyl Hit Streets as the DEA Watched and Took No Action, Records Show
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.
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31 Articles
31 Articles
DEA let fentanyl pills reach New Mexico streets, whistleblower tells AP
An AP investigation found DEA agents let fentanyl consignments move through New Mexico during wider trafficking probes. The tactic has intensified scrutiny over whether bigger cases were built at the cost of public safety.
·India
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Daily News-Record+14 Reposted by 14 other sources
Staggering amounts of fentanyl hit streets as the DEA watched and took no action, records show
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration allowed hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills to hit the streets of New Mexico from 2023 to 2025, according to current and former DEA agents and records reviewed by The Associated Press. The tactic was…
Associated Press News+13 Reposted by 13 other sources
What a reporter found when uncovering why federal agents allowed a deadly drug to hit the streets
Associated Press journalist Jim Mustian explains how he reported and wrote a story that examined why the U.S.
·New York, United States
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Total News Sources31
Leaning Left14Leaning Right7Center9Last UpdatedBias Distribution47% Left
Bias Distribution
- 47% of the sources lean Left
47% Left
L 47%
C 30%
R 23%
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