DEA Allowed Hundreds of Thousands of Fentanyl Pills to Reach New Mexico Streets, Records Show

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration permitted hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills to hit the streets of New Mexico between 2023 and 2025 while agents monitored shipments but did not seize them, according to current and former DEA agents and government records reviewed by The Associated Press. Federal prosecutors pursued this strategy to build larger criminal cases against major drug traffickers of the synthetic opioid, which the White House designated a "weapon of mass destruction." However, agents and experts contended the tactic amounted to a dangerous gamble with public safety that potentially imperiled communities in and around Albuquerque and may have violated U.S. Justice Department rules designed to protect the public.

DEA Special Agent David Howell described the approach candidly in interviews with AP, saying "We poisoned our community to make cases." He added, "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 strategy shocked several veteran agents, though the DEA has historically contended it would not be feasible to seize every shipment of every drug.

Fentanyl's extreme lethality—a few milligrams can kill an average adult—required different enforcement methods than traditional drugs like cocaine and heroin. The Justice Department developed guidelines encouraging agents to seize fentanyl whenever "practicable," yet the DEA pursued a strategy that allowed drug transactions to proceed to gather intelligence and follow narcotics through the supply chain. Alex Uballez, who served as U.S. attorney in New Mexico until recently, justified the approach by citing limited resources and arguing that prosecuting larger trafficking organizations would save more lives than interdicting individual transactions. "The bigger fish are worth catching," Uballez said, "and that will save more lives."

Albuquerque and other New Mexico regions remained at the epicenter of the fentanyl epidemic. While overdose deaths nationwide fell 14% last year, New Mexico recorded a 21% spike. The DEA recorded its largest fentanyl bust in history in Albuquerque last year. In some cases, agents possessed such detailed intelligence about drug deliveries that they could document precise pill counts from coded cellphone communications and close surveillance of transactions at locations like mobile home parks.

The DEA defended its actions in a statement, asserting that "the investigative decisions at issue were lawful, reasonable under the circumstances and consistent with Department guidance." Spokesperson Amanda Wozniak stated that "public descriptions suggesting that DEA knowingly permitted fentanyl to reach communities are false," and emphasized that investigations involved court-authorized wiretaps targeting larger drug trafficking organizations through real-time surveillance and intelligence gathering.