DEA allowed hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills to reach New Mexico streets while building larger cases, whistleblower and records show

Between 2023 and 2025, DEA agents in Albuquerque, New Mexico repeatedly monitored fentanyl shipments without seizing them as federal prosecutors sought to build larger cases against drug trafficking organizations, according to a report published by the Associated Press based on government records and interviews with three current and former agents. The DEA described the decisions as lawful and said that public characterizations suggesting it "knowingly permitted fentanyl to reach communities are false and fundamentally mischaracterize the facts," according to spokesperson Amanda Wozniak.

DEA Special Agent David Howell, who participated in some of the surveillance operations, told the AP that agents watched a single transaction at an Albuquerque mobile home park in June 2023 in which traffickers delivered 74,000 pills — a figure later confirmed in a federal court filing. Howell also reported that agents on a separate multistate investigation permitted at least 1.8 million fentanyl pills to go unseized. A former DEA supervisor, speaking anonymously for fear of retaliation, told the AP that "millions" of pills were allowed to flow during that investigation, which culminated in the largest fentanyl bust in DEA history — a May 2025 seizure of more than 3 million pills announced by then-Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Former U.S. Attorney Alex Uballez, who led the New Mexico federal prosecutor's office from 2022 through last year, said the approach reflected limited resources and the belief that dismantling larger trafficking organizations saves more lives than interdicting individual shipments. "The bigger fish are worth catching," Uballez said. The current U.S. attorney's office said in a statement that the conduct Howell brought to light occurred under the prior administration and that current leadership is focused on aggressively prosecuting fentanyl trafficking.