The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has been criticized for allowing hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills to hit the streets of New Mexico between 2023 and 2025, according to government records and current and former DEA agents.

Fentanyl Epidemic in New Mexico

Albuquerque, which has a neighborhood known as the ‘War Zone’ due to its high crime rate and drug activity, remains at the epicenter of the fentanyl epidemic. While overdose deaths nationwide fell 14% last year, government data shows New Mexico experienced a 21% spike.

DEA agents repeatedly monitored shipments of fentanyl pills but did not seize them, as federal prosecutors sought to bring bigger criminal cases against traffickers of the synthetic opioid. The tactic has been described as a gamble with public safety, potentially imperiling communities in and around Albuquerque.

Concerns Over Public Safety

DEA Special Agent David Howell, who filed an official whistleblower complaint in 2023, said the agency’s actions risked public safety. ‘We poisoned our community to make cases,’ he said. ‘Through our own willful blindness, we get to say, ‘We don’t really know what happened to the drugs.’ But we 100% got people killed.’

The DEA has long contended it would not be plausible to seize every shipment of every drug. However, the strategy of allowing staggering amounts of counterfeit painkillers to hit the streets has shocked several veteran agents who spoke with the Associated Press.

Original reporting: KOAT Albuquerque — read the source article.