The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) allowed hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills to hit the streets of New Mexico between 2023 and 2025, according to current and former DEA agents and government records. This decision was made despite the DEA’s top priority being to rid the streets of illicit fentanyl, which is manufactured mostly in Mexican labs.
Fentanyl Epidemic
The fentanyl epidemic has become the deadliest drug epidemic in American history, with overdose deaths surging over the last decade. The DEA has developed guidelines for agents to seize fentanyl whenever possible, but in some cases, agents have been allowed to permit the distribution of the drug in order to gather intelligence and build cases against major traffickers.
A DEA special agent, David Howell, filed a whistleblower complaint in 2023, stating that the tactic of allowing fentanyl to hit the streets was a gamble with public safety that potentially imperiled communities in and around Albuquerque. Howell reported that agents on a case permitted the delivery of at least 1.8 million fentanyl pills.
The DEA has said that the investigative decisions were lawful and reasonable, and that public descriptions suggesting that the DEA knowingly permitted fentanyl to reach communities are false and mischaracterize the facts.
Original reporting: WOWO News/Talk (Fort Wayne) — read the source article.
