ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) 鈥� Even as it battled the deadliest drug epidemic in American history, the permitted hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills to hit the streets of New Mexico between 2023 and 2025, according to three current and former DEA agents and government records reviewed by The Associated Press.
DEA agents repeatedly monitored shipments of fentanyl pills 鈥� but did not seize them 鈥� as federal prosecutors sought to bring bigger criminal cases against traffickers of a synthetic opioid that the White House last year designated a 鈥� .鈥�
Agents and experts, however, said the tactic amounted to a gamble with public safety that potentially imperiled communities in and around Albuquerque and may have violated U.S. Justice Department rules intended to safeguard the public.
鈥淲e poisoned our community to make cases,鈥� DEA Special Agent David Howell told AP in a in New Mexico. 鈥淭hrough our own willful blindness, we get to say, 鈥榃e don鈥檛 really know what happened to the drugs.鈥� But we 100% got people killed.鈥�
The DEA has long contended it would not be plausible to seize every shipment of every drug. But the strategy of allowing staggering amounts of counterfeit painkillers to hit the streets shocked several veteran agents who spoke with AP.
Ridding the streets of illicit fentanyl, manufactured mostly in Mexican labs, became DEA鈥檚 top priority over the past decade . At the same time, its lethality 鈥� a few milligrams can kill the average adult 鈥� upended time-tested tactics that had been used to combat drugs like cocaine and heroin. Those methods have included allowing drug transactions to be completed so agents might follow the narcotics through the supply chain. Fentanyl, however, is so dangerous that the U.S. Justice Department developed guidelines for agents in such circumstances, encouraging them to seize the opioid whenever 鈥減racticable.鈥�
Albuquerque, which has a neighborhood so besieged by drugs it鈥檚 known as 鈥淲ar Zone,鈥� and other regions in New Mexico of the fentanyl epidemic. While , government data show New Mexico tallied a 21% spike.
Alex Uballez, who served as U.S. attorney in New Mexico from 2022 through last year, said authorities at times allowed drug shipments to go unseized as part of a broader effort to gather intelligence and build cases against major drug traffickers. He said the approach reflected his office鈥檚 limited resources and his belief that prosecuting larger organizations can have a bigger impact than interdicting every suspected drug transaction.
Last year, DEA recorded the largest fentanyl bust in its history in Albuquerque.
鈥淭he bigger fish are worth catching,鈥� Uballez said, 鈥渁nd that will save more lives.鈥�
The DEA said in a statement that 鈥渢he investigative decisions at issue were lawful, reasonable under the circumstances and consistent with Department guidance.鈥�
鈥淧ublic descriptions suggesting that DEA knowingly permitted fentanyl to reach communities are false and fundamentally mischaracterize the facts,鈥� DEA spokesperson Amanda Wozniak wrote in an email. She said the investigations involved court-authorized wiretaps 鈥渋n which agents and prosecutors conducted real-time surveillance, intelligence gathering, and operational analysis targeting larger drug trafficking organizations.鈥�
Precise intelligence on drug deliveries
In some cases, the DEA had such detailed intelligence about drug deliveries that agents were able to tally precise pill counts, according to reports reviewed by AP.
Agents, for example, deciphered coded chatter over cellphones and closely surveilled a transaction at a mobile home park in Albuquerque in June 2023, according to a 66-page report reviewed by AP. Agents wrote in the report that traffickers delivered 74,000 pills as part of that deal, a figure federal prosecutors later confirmed in a court filing.
Days earlier, another DEA report showed, investigators watched the same distribution ring deliver a spare tire hiding another suspected fentanyl shipment that similarly went unseized.
鈥淲e did nothing, but sit back and watch,鈥� said Howell, who filed an official whistleblower complaint in 2023 to bring attention to what he thought was a tactic that risked public safety.
Months passed before federal authorities busted the traffickers, and Howell, who participated in the surveillance, said authorities today cannot account for the unseized shipments.
鈥淚t鈥檚 outrageous to put that many lives at risk in hopes of making a big case,鈥� said Tristan Leavitt, president of Empower Oversight, a whistleblower advocacy group that has asked the Senate Judiciary Committee and Justice Department鈥檚 Office of Inspector General to investigate Howell鈥檚 claims.
A former DEA supervisor, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said he and his Albuquerque colleagues allowed 鈥渕illions鈥� of pills to go unseized during a multi-state investigation last year.
Howell reported in his whistleblower disclosures that agents on that case permitted the delivery of at least 1.8 million fentanyl pills.
That investigation, the former supervisor and Howell told AP, culminated in the largest fentanyl bust in DEA history, a takedown announced in May 2025 by then-Attorney General Pam Bondi that resulted in the seizure of more than 3 million pills.
鈥淭he amount we ultimately seized was hitting the streets every month while that case was going on,鈥� the former supervisor said, adding that the DEA could have dismantled the organization six months earlier.
The U.S. Attorney鈥檚 Office in Albuquerque did not answer questions about the unseized fentanyl shipments but, in a statement to AP, said the 鈥渃onduct鈥� Howell brought to light happened during the prior administration.
鈥淭he current leadership of this office is focused on aggressively investigating and prosecuting fentanyl trafficking and disrupting the criminal organizations responsible for distributing these drugs,鈥� Tessa DuBerry, a spokesperson for the office, wrote in an email.
Uballez, the former U.S. attorney, said estimated pill counts 鈥渂ased on intercepted phone calls are not reliable.鈥�
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think I鈥檇 contest that drugs are 鈥榳alked,鈥欌�� he said, referring to the law enforcement tactic of allowing contraband to go unseized to further an investigation. 鈥淗ow much and how frequently 鈥� and with what certainty 鈥� is incredibly difficult to answer in retrospect.鈥�
To seize or not to seize
As fentanyl overdoses became an epidemic over the last decade, the U.S. Justice Department developed an internal playbook for combatting the deadliest drug ever to cross the Mexican border. The game plan coincided with a publicity campaign that warned Americans that 鈥淥ne Pill Can Kill,鈥� a DEA effort to highlight fentanyl鈥檚 unique dangers.
Adopted in 2017, the department鈥檚 two-page 鈥淔entanyl Protocols鈥� called on agents to 鈥渟eize or otherwise prevent the distribution鈥� of fentanyl 鈥渁s soon as practicable.鈥� The rules, which have not previously been made public, said that 鈥減rotecting public safety is paramount,鈥� irrespective of whether seizures compromise investigations.
The Justice Department rewrote the rules in 2024 to afford law enforcement more discretion in such cases. The updated protocols say investigators 鈥渕ay exercise discretion in determining whether to take action to prevent the trafficking of fentanyl,鈥� balancing public safety risks against 鈥渢he benefits to be achieved through preserving the investigation.鈥�
The DEA rarely discusses the tactic of allowing drugs to go unseized. Its agent manual describes taking drugs off the street as 鈥渢he usual course of action鈥� but adds 鈥渢here may be instances where the investigative objectives can be better achieved by not doing so.鈥�
The agency has long used 鈥渃ontrolled deliveries鈥� in which constant surveillance of the drugs 鈥� and often replacing them with fake narcotics 鈥� is followed by a takedown to recover them, according to current and former agents.
In interviews, several current and former agents likened the decision to permit fentanyl to hit the streets to the infamous 鈥淥peration Fast and Furious,鈥� a 2011 gun-walking scandal in which straw buyers smuggled some 2,000 assault weapons into Mexico with the intent of tracing the firearms to cartel leaders.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was savaged with after two of those guns surfaced at the scene of the fatal shooting of a Border Patrol agent, and the Justice Department explicitly forbid agents from allowing firearms to be trafficked.
Blowing the whistle
Howell became so unnerved by his agency鈥檚 failure to seize fentanyl that he began flagging overdose deaths that might have been caused by the very pills DEA permitted to flow to dealers. One of those cases included a 15-month-old toddler who died after ingesting burned fentanyl residue last year in Espa帽ola, a New Mexico town ravaged by grinding poverty and addiction.
Howell, who joined DEA 19 years ago after a decade in the Navy, took his allegations to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel. The agency, tasked with protecting whistleblowers, initially found a 鈥渟ubstantial likelihood of wrongdoing鈥� and asked the Justice Department to investigate.
In early 2024, Howell told the Justice Department鈥檚 Office of Professional Responsibility that DEA agents had observed 鈥� yet not seized 鈥� separate deliveries of 150,000 and 50,000 fentanyl pills.
DEA and federal prosecutors, he added, 鈥渁re 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.鈥�
The Justice Department鈥檚 Office of Professional Responsibility found in 2024 that the DEA and U.S. attorney鈥檚 office had made reasonable decisions in deciding to allow drugs to go unseized and that their inaction posed no 鈥渟pecific danger to public health.鈥�
The Office of Special Counsel, which critics say rarely pushes back on agency findings, deemed the Justice Department鈥檚 report reasonable.
Howell, meanwhile, paid a price after coming forward. The DEA relegated him to desk duty for more than a year and docked his performance evaluations, according to Howell and DEA records. Internal records also show prosecutors barred him from testifying in federal court, citing his 鈥減attern of refusing to heed鈥� admonitions to allow drugs to go unseized during long-term investigations.
Pointing to DEA鈥檚 own 鈥淥ne Pill Can Kill鈥� campaign, current and former agents said they could not understand the watchdog鈥檚 finding that the tactics had not put the public in danger. They noted the drug is so dangerous it has to be handled in a specialized laboratory.
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Goodman reported from Miami.
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