Even as it battled the deadliest drug epidemic in American history, the US 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 AP. The strategy was deliberate: Federal prosecutors hoped letting the pills go through would yield bigger cases against trafficking networks. 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 US Justice Department rules intended to safeguard the public.
"We poisoned our community to make cases," DEA Special Agent David Howell told the 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—extremely potent ones—to hit the streets shocked several veteran agents who spoke with the AP.
Alex Uballez, who served as US 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 build cases against major drug traffickers. He said the approach reflected his office's limited resources and his belief that prosecuting larger organizations can have a bigger impact than interdicting every suspected drug transaction. But a DEA spokeswoman disputes the story: "Public descriptions suggesting that DEA knowingly permitted fentanyl to reach communities are false." For the documents, timelines, and on-the-ground voices behind these claims, read the full story by Joshua Goodman and Michael Balsamo.
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