New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham has called for a criminal investigation into the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) after an Associated Press investigation found that federal agents allowed hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills to reach the streets over a two-year period.

DEA’s Actions Under Scrutiny

The DEA’s actions have been questioned by current and former agents, who claim that the agency’s strategy amounted to a gamble with public safety in a state ravaged by the fentanyl epidemic. The governor’s call for a criminal review turns a debate over drug enforcement tactics into a question of whether federal agents themselves crossed legal lines while pursuing larger trafficking organizations.

The DEA has contended that it would not be plausible to seize every drug shipment and has stated that the investigative decisions at issue were lawful, reasonable under the circumstances, and consistent with Department guidance. However, the governor has expressed outrage over the DEA’s actions, stating that the agency knew people would die if the pills made it into New Mexico communities, and yet the agency let it happen anyway.

Consequences of DEA’s Actions

The consequences of the DEA’s actions are still being felt, with New Mexico experiencing a 21% spike in overdose deaths last year. The governor has vowed to hold the federal government accountable for this disaster and will explore every possible avenue of action against the federal government to right these wrongs.

Victims’ groups have also spoken out about the DEA’s inaction, saying its approach in New Mexico contradicts the agency’s prominent ‘One Pill Can Kill’ campaign that warns as little as a few milligrams of fentanyl can cause a fatal overdose. A whistleblower, David Howell, has filed a complaint drawing attention to the unseized fentanyl, and Empower Oversight, a whistleblower advocacy group, has asked the Senate Judiciary Committee and Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General to investigate the agent’s allegations.

Original reporting: WTVQ (Lexington) — read the source article.