Overview
- New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez opened a criminal investigation Friday into whether DEA agents broke state law by monitoring but not seizing hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills between 2023 and 2025.
- DEA Administrator Terry Cole asked the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General to review operational decisions after an Associated Press investigation reported that agents surveilled large deliveries, including a cited 74,000‑pill drop in Albuquerque, instead of immediately interdicting them.
- Whistleblower Special Agent David Howell first raised internal complaints in 2023 and says the tactic of letting shipments "walk" was used to gather intelligence on higher‑level traffickers, a claim the DEA disputes as a mischaracterization of court‑authorized surveillance.
- State leaders and some local law enforcement say the practice risked public safety as New Mexico’s overdose deaths rose sharply even while national deaths fell, though no definitive link has been established between specific overdoses and the surveillance tactic.
- The dual probes could lead to changes in DOJ and DEA policies because a 2024 internal review already expanded investigator discretion, but the OIG can only assess conduct and procedures while the state inquiry faces legal limits when examining federal agents performing official duties.