Headline Roundup • June 22nd, 2026
DEA Permitted Hundreds of Thousands of Fentanyl Pills in Favor of Bigger Cases: AP Report
Summary from the AllSides News Team
The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) reportedly allowed hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills into New Mexico between 2023 and 2025 – under both the Biden and Trump administrations.
The Details: DEA agents permitted the drug shipments without intervention in favor of "bigger criminal cases" and traffickers, according to an Associated Press (Lean Left bias) report that cited "three current and former DEA agents and government records." The shipments reportedly remain unaccounted for, though the DEA refuted such allegations.
RELATED: AP's Bias Shifts from Left to Lean Left, But Barely | AllSides
Differing Perspectives: "We poisoned our community to make cases," said DEA Special Agent David Howell. "We get to say, 'We don't really know what happened to the drugs.' But we 100% got people killed." The DEA reportedly demoted Howell to desk duty after he blew the whistle on its tactics. Associated Press said that multiple officials suggested the tactics violated the Justice Department's (DOJ) public safeguards.
Former New Mexico US Attorney Alex Uballez conversely said, "The bigger fish are worth catching, and that will save more lives." DEA spokesperson Amanda Wozniak agreed and said the agency "conducted real-time surveillance, intelligence gathering, and operational analysis targeting larger drug trafficking organizations." She asserted, "Public descriptions suggesting that DEA knowingly permitted fentanyl to reach communities are false and fundamentally mischaracterize the facts."
For Context: DOJ guidelines direct law enforcement to seize fentanyl whenever "practicable." However, the department updated its protocols in 2024 to allow "discretion in determining whether to take action to prevent the trafficking of fentanyl" to pursue larger cases. The DEA accomplished its largest ever fentanyl seizure in 2025 in New Mexico, and nationwide overdose deaths decreased 14% in 2025, but they increased 21% in the state. The DOJ's Office of Professional Responsibility said in 2024 that the DEA's inaction posed no "specific danger to public health."
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Featured Coverage of this Story
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration allowed hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills to reach users in New Mexico between 2023 and 2025.
The decision to monitor but not seize the shipments was part of a tactic to gather intelligence and build cases against major drug trafficking organizations, the Associated Press reported.
David Howell, DEA special agent, told the Associated Press that the "willful blindness" of the tactic "poisoned our communities" and got people killed...
The federal government failed to seize thousands of fentanyl pills in New Mexico that it was monitoring between 2023 and 2025, according to a whistleblower complaint.
Citing three current and former Drug Enforcement Administration agents, The Associated Press reported that agents repeatedly monitored shipments of fentanyl pills in New Mexico but failed to seize them even as the deals were completed.
The agency had hoped to track the shipments and make larger-scale seizures, but that did not happen...
AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan
Even as it battled the deadliest drug epidemic in American history, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration 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 — but did not seize them — as federal prosecutors sought to bring bigger criminal cases against traffickers of a synthetic opioid that the White House last year designated a " weapon...
