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The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has asked the Justice Department's inspector general to investigate whistleblower claims that DEA agents allowed hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills to reach the streets of New Mexico, a strategy known as "letting the drugs walk." Source: AP News
The allegations, first reported by The Associated Press, reveal that between 2023 and 2025, agents repeatedly monitored but did not seize fentanyl shipments in an effort to build bigger cases. Source: AP News Former agent David Howell filed a whistleblower complaint in 2023, stating the strategy "poisoned our community to make cases." Source: AP News
DEA Administrator Terry Cole requested an investigation, stating the allegations "have generated significant public attention." Source: AP News However, he emphasized that the request "should not be interpreted as reflecting any lack of confidence" in DEA personnel. Source: AP News New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham called the actions "reckless and dangerous" and asked the state attorney general to investigate. Source: AP News
“DEA administrator Terry Cole wrote that an internal probe was necessary because 'the allegations have generated significant public attention and have raised questions regarding DEA’s operational decisions, supervisory oversight, and response to concerns.'”
“Current and former DEA agents told the AP the investigative strategy — known as letting the counterfeit painkillers 'walk' — amounted to a gamble with public safety in a state ravaged by the fentanyl epidemic and may have violated Justice Department rules intended to safeguard communities from a drug the White House last year designated as a 'weapon of mass destruction.'”
“One of those agents, David Howell, first raised serious concerns about this strategy in a 2023 whistleblower complaint. He continued to raise his objections internally and spoke at length with the AP about what he described as a strategy that 'poisoned our community to make cases.'”