DEA Allowed Small Fentanyl Shipments to Reach Higher-Level Traffickers

New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham asked the state attorney general on Wednesday to open a criminal investigation into whether Drug Enforcement Administration agents broke state law by permitting hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills to reach New Mexico streets.

The request follows an Associated Press investigation that documented agents allowing major fentanyl shipments to continue moving through the state from 2023 to 2025 instead of seizing them immediately while agents built cases against higher-ranking traffickers.

An internal report documented a 2023 delivery of 74,000 fentanyl pills that agents surveilled but did not seize at a mobile home park in Albuquerque.

Government data show overdose deaths nationwide fell 14 percent last year while New Mexico recorded a 21 percent spike. It remains unclear whether any fatal overdoses in the state can be directly attributed to the DEA strategy. DEA spokesperson Amanda Wozniak wrote that public descriptions suggesting the agency knowingly permitted fentanyl to reach communities are false and mischaracterize the facts.

Alex Uballez, who served as U.S. attorney in New Mexico from May 2022 until February 2025, told the AP that drugs went unseized at times due to limited resources and a belief that prosecuting larger organizations has a bigger impact. DEA whistleblower David Howell, who filed a complaint about the unseized fentanyl, spoke Wednesday with congressional staffers.

Empower Oversight, the whistleblower advocacy group representing Howell, has asked the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General to investigate the allegations. Michael Glownia, who lost his daughter to fentanyl in 2023 and founded a nonprofit to support families suffering similar losses, said knowing the Justice Department had guidelines to seize the opioids whenever practical and the fact these were ignored is truly heartbreaking.