Staggering amounts of fentanyl hit streets as DEA watched and took no action, records show

By — Jim Mustian, Associated Press Jim Mustian, Associated Press By — Joshua Goodman, Associated Press Joshua Goodman, Associated Press Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/staggering-amounts-of-fentanyl-hit-streets-as-dea-watched-and-took-no-action-records-show Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Staggering amounts of fentanyl hit streets as DEA watched and took no action, records show Nation Jun 22, 2026 2:52 PM EDT ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — 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. READ MORE: How social media became a storefront for deadly fake pills laced with fentanyl 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 of mass destruction." Educate your inbox Subscribe to Here’s the Deal, our politics newsletter for analysis you won’t find anywhere else. 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. "We poisoned our community to make cases," DEA Special Agent David Howell told AP in a series of interviews in New Mexico. "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 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 the DEA's top priority over the past decade as overdose deaths surged. At the same time, its lethality — a few milligrams can kill the average adult — 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 Justice Department developed guidelines for agents in such circumstances, encouraging them to seize the opioid whenever "practicable." Albuquerque, which has a neighborhood so besieged by drugs it's known as "War Zone," and other regions in New Mexico remain at the epicenter of the fentanyl epidemic. While overdose deaths nationwide fell 14% last year, government data show New Mexico tallied a 21% spike. New Mexico became a testing ground for a