New Mexico Governor Demands Criminal Probe of DEA Over Fentanyl Shipments
New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham has called for a criminal investigation into the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration after an Associated Press investigation revealed that federal agents allowed hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills to reach the streets between 2023 and 2025. The governor asked state Attorney General Raúl Torrez to examine whether the agency’s actions violated New Mexico law, escalating tensions between state and federal authorities over the handling of the opioid crisis.
“There are no words to describe how reckless and dangerous these decisions were,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “Make no mistake: the DEA knew people would die if these pills made it into New Mexico communities, and the agency let it happen anyway.”
The Investigation
According to the Associated Press investigation, DEA agents repeatedly monitored shipments of fentanyl pills but did not seize them as federal prosecutors sought to build bigger criminal cases against higher-ranking traffickers. An internal DEA report documented a June 2023 delivery of 74,000 fentanyl pills at a mobile home park in Albuquerque that agents surveilled but did not intercept.
DEA Special Agent David Howell, a 19-year veteran and former Navy service member, filed a whistleblower complaint in 2023 alleging the practice violated Justice Department guidelines and risked public safety. “We poisoned our community to make cases,” Howell told the AP. “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.”
A former DEA supervisor told the AP that he and his Albuquerque colleagues allowed “millions” of pills to go unseized during a multistate investigation in 2024. Howell reported that at least 1.8 million fentanyl pills were permitted to be delivered.
State vs. Federal Tensions
The governor’s call for a criminal investigation represents an extraordinary challenge to federal law enforcement authority. Lujan Grisham documented five requests to federal officials between June 2022 and September 2025 asking for more federal agents and resources — requests she says went largely unfulfilled.
“New Mexican lives are not the federal government’s cost of doing business,” Lujan Grisham said.
Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller and Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen have also condemned the tactics. “It is disgusting to think that federal authorities may have allowed hundreds of thousands of these deadly pills to move into our community and possibly killed people through their actions,” Keller said. Sheriff Allen added: “We’re basically allowing the DEA to feed poison to our community for a bigger case.”
DEA’s Response
DEA Administrator Terry Cole asked the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General on June 25 to investigate the whistleblower’s claims. In a letter to the Inspector General, Cole wrote that an internal probe was necessary because “the allegations have generated significant public attention and have raised questions regarding DEA’s operational decisions, supervisory oversight, and response to concerns.”
“If improvements are identified, DEA will implement them,” Cole said. “Strong institutions are sustained — not diminished — by objective oversight.”
DEA Spokesperson Amanda Wozniak pushed back on the allegations, stating that “public descriptions suggesting that DEA knowingly permitted fentanyl to reach communities are false and fundamentally mischaracterize the facts.”
The Human Toll
While overdose deaths nationwide fell 14% in the past year, New Mexico saw a 21–23% spike, marking the second consecutive year the state led the nation in overdose mortality. The White House designated fentanyl a “weapon of mass destruction” in December 2025.
Critics have drawn comparisons to the infamous 2011 “Operation Fast and Furious” scandal, in which the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allowed approximately 2,000 assault weapons to be smuggled into Mexico, leading to the death of a Border Patrol agent. Several current and former DEA agents likened the fentanyl-walking tactic to that operation.
Legal and National Implications
Whether state law can be applied to federal agents acting in an official capacity is legally complex. The Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility previously reviewed the DEA’s decisions and found them “reasonable,” determining there was no “specific danger to public health.”
Empower Oversight, a government accountability nonprofit, has asked the Senate Judiciary Committee and the DOJ Inspector General to investigate whether the practice extended beyond New Mexico. “The bigger fish are worth catching, and that will save more lives,” former U.S. Attorney Alex Uballez told the AP, defending the tactic.
What’s Next
The investigation culminated in the largest fentanyl bust in DEA history, announced in May 2025, resulting in the seizure of more than 3 million pills. But for Lujan Grisham and local officials, the question remains whether the strategy of allowing deadly drugs to “walk” onto the streets was worth the human cost. The Justice Department’s Inspector General investigation, combined with the governor’s call for a state-level criminal probe, will determine whether federal agents face any legal consequences for their decisions.
“I plan to hold the federal government accountable for this disaster,” Lujan Grisham said, “and will explore every possible avenue of action against the federal government to right these wrongs.”