Overview
- Monday’s Associated Press investigation, using hundreds of internal DEA records and interviews, found agents in New Mexico tracked but often did not seize hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills between 2023 and 2025 to preserve multi‑target probes.
- Whistleblower Special Agent David Howell filed a complaint in late 2023 alleging the tactic “poisoned our community,” and the Office of Special Counsel first flagged a substantial likelihood of wrongdoing before the Justice Department’s internal review later cleared the agency in 2024.
- Records reviewed by AP document specific cases including a June 2023 delivery that agents recorded as 74,000 pills that were watched but not seized and other disclosures claiming at least 1.8 million pills or even “millions” were allowed to move in one investigation.
- The dispute turned on policy: the DOJ’s 2017 ‘Fentanyl Protocols’ urged seizure when practicable but were rewritten in 2024 to let investigators weigh public‑safety risks against intelligence gains, and DEA and former prosecutors defend the tactic as lawful and aimed at top traffickers.
- The reporting has renewed calls for oversight because New Mexico saw a 21% rise in overdose deaths while national deaths fell, critics compare the approach to past ‘controlled delivery’ scandals, and advocates and some lawmakers are seeking further probes and accountability.