The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration permitted hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills to reach communities in New Mexico between 2023 and 2025, allowing the deadly synthetic opioid to circulate while agents monitored shipments. This tactic was employed as federal prosecutors sought to build larger criminal cases against traffickers, a strategy that Special Agent David Howell stated "poisoned our community" and "100% got people killed."
Government records reviewed by The Associated Press confirm that agents observed these shipments without seizure. In June 2023, agents deciphered coded cellphone chatter and surveilled a transaction in Albuquerque where traffickers delivered 74,000 pills, a figure later confirmed by federal prosecutors. Days prior, investigators watched the same distribution ring deliver another suspected fentanyl shipment, hidden in a spare tire, which also went unseized.
A former DEA supervisor, speaking anonymously due to fear of retaliation, reported that he and his Albuquerque colleagues allowed "millions" of pills to go unseized during a multistate investigation last year. Whistleblower disclosures from Howell indicated that agents on that case permitted the delivery of at least 1.8 million fentanyl pills.
The DEA defended its actions, stating that "the investigative decisions at issue were lawful, reasonable under the circumstances and consistent with Department guidance." DEA spokesperson Amanda Wozniak asserted that "public descriptions suggesting that DEA knowingly permitted fentanyl to reach communities are false and fundamentally mischaracterize the facts," claiming investigations involved court-authorized wiretaps for "real-time surveillance, intelligence gathering, and operational analysis targeting larger drug trafficking organizations."
The State's Calculus
The Justice Department’s internal "Fentanyl Protocols," originally developed in 2017, called on agents to "seize or otherwise prevent the distribution" of fentanyl "as soon as practicable," emphasizing that "protecting public safety is paramount." However, these rules were rewritten in 2024, granting law enforcement greater discretion by allowing investigators to "exercise discretion in determining whether to take action to prevent the trafficking of fentanyl," balancing public safety risks against "the benefits to be achieved through preserving the investigation." This revision explicitly prioritizes the state's "investigative objectives" over immediate public safety.
Alex Uballez, who served as U.S. attorney in New Mexico from 2022 through last year, explained that allowing drug shipments to go unseized was part of a broader effort to gather intelligence and build cases against major drug traffickers. Uballez cited "limited resources" and a belief that prosecuting larger organizations could have a "bigger impact" than interdicting every suspected drug transaction.
The U.S. attorney’s office in Albuquerque stated that the "conduct" Howell brought to light occurred during the prior administration, with current leadership focused on "aggresively investigating and prosecuting fentanyl trafficking."
Human Cost and State Repression
The consequences of this state strategy were borne by communities. Special Agent Howell began flagging overdose deaths potentially caused by the pills the DEA permitted to flow to dealers, including the death of a 15-month-old toddler last year in Española, New Mexico, after ingesting burned fentanyl residue.
Howell, who joined the DEA 19 years ago after a decade in the Navy, filed an official whistleblower complaint in 2023. He took his allegations to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, which initially found a "substantial likelihood of wrongdoing" and requested a Justice Department investigation. Howell later told the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility about two years ago that DEA agents had observed, yet not seized, separate deliveries of 150,000 and 50,000 fentanyl pills. He warned that the DEA and federal prosecutors were "placing themselves in a precarious position where they will not be able to prove that the fentanyl they could have stopped did not result in the death of a person."
The Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility concluded in 2024 that the DEA and the U.S. attorney’s office had made "reasonable decisions" in allowing drugs to go unseized and that their inaction posed no "specific danger to public health." The Office of Special Counsel deemed this report reasonable.
Following his disclosures, Howell was relegated to desk duty for more than a year and faced docked performance evaluations. Internal records show prosecutors barred him from testifying in federal court, citing his "pattern of refusing to heed" admonitions to allow drugs to go unseized during long-term investigations. Current and former agents expressed inability to comprehend the watchdog’s finding that the tactics had not endangered the public, given fentanyl's extreme toxicity.
The largest fentanyl bust in DEA history, announced about one year ago in May 2025, resulted in the seizure of more than 3 million pills. However, the former DEA supervisor noted that "the amount we ultimately seized was hitting the streets every month while that case was going on," suggesting the organization could have been dismantled six months earlier. This highlights the state's prioritization of a high-profile "bust" over immediate and sustained community protection.