DEA watched fentanyl shipments—and faced public safety fallout

DEA watched – DEA agents monitored fentanyl pill shipments into New Mexico between 2023 and 2025 without seizing them, according to three current and former agents and government records reviewed by The Associated Press. Whistleblower David Howell says the strategy risked p

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — DEA agents tracked fentanyl pill deliveries into New Mexico between 2023 and 2025 and, in those cases, did not seize the drugs even as federal prosecutors worked to build bigger cases against traffickers.

Three current and former DEA agents and government records reviewed by The Associated Press describe a tactic that left counterfeit painkillers moving through communities around Albuquerque while prosecutors pursued larger criminal targets. Federal guidelines developed within the Justice Department have encouraged agents to seize fentanyl “as soon as practicable. ” and the dispute over whether those rules were followed has become a flashpoint.

“‘We poisoned our community to make cases,’” DEA Special Agent David Howell said 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.”

Howell’s account and the records reviewed by AP center on a decision that agents described as a gamble with public safety. The DEA’s long-standing argument is that it is not plausible to seize every shipment of every drug. but several veteran agents who spoke with AP said the approach—allowing staggering amounts of fentanyl to reach dealers—shocked even people familiar with controlled-delivery tactics.

New Mexico, especially the Albuquerque region, has been one of the epicenters of the fentanyl epidemic. Over the last decade, DEA efforts to disrupt fentanyl trafficking became a top priority as overdose deaths surged. The danger posed by the opioid—so potent that “a few grams can kill the average adult”—has disrupted older enforcement methods used against drugs like cocaine and heroin.

Those older methods have included allowing drug transactions to be completed so investigators can follow the drugs through the supply chain. With fentanyl, the Justice Department developed guidelines that—within law enforcement operations—encouraged seizure whenever “practicable.”

The scale of what agents say was permitted is stark. Agents repeatedly monitored shipments of fentanyl pills without seizing them. including cases where investigators said they could tally precise pill counts. In one example. agents deciphered coded cellphone chatter and closely surveilled a transaction at a mobile home park in Albuquerque in June 2023. A 66-page report reviewed by AP said traffickers delivered 74. 000 pills as part of that deal. and federal prosecutors later confirmed that figure in a court filing.

In another case, a DEA report described investigators watching the same distribution ring deliver a spare tire hiding another suspected fentanyl shipment that similarly went unseized.

In Howell’s account. federal prosecutors and agents could not later account for the unseized deliveries after the traffickers were ultimately busted. Howell. who participated in the surveillance. said that as months passed before authorities moved in. the ability to track what happened to the drugs evaporated.

“It’s outrageous to put that many lives at risk in hopes of making a big case,” said Tristan Leavitt, president of Empower Oversight, a whistleblower advocacy group that has asked the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General to investigate Howell’s claims.

Howell filed his whistleblower complaint in 2023. He said agents allowed deliveries to proceed even after monitoring, and internal disclosures he made described specific instances.

A former DEA supervisor. speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. told AP that the supervisor and colleagues allowed “millions” of pills to go unseized during a multi-state investigation last year. Howell reported in his whistleblower disclosures that agents on that case permitted the delivery of at least 1.8 million fentanyl pills.

That investigation, the former supervisor and Howell said, culminated in the largest fentanyl bust in DEA history—an announcement made in May 2025 by then-Attorney General Pam Bondi that resulted in the seizure of more than 3 million pills.

“The amount we ultimately seized was hitting the streets every month while that case was going on,” the former supervisor said, adding that the DEA could have dismantled the organization six months earlier.

The DEA disputes the characterization that agents knowingly permitted fentanyl to reach communities. The agency said in a statement that “the investigative decisions at issue were lawful, reasonable under the circumstances and consistent with Department guidance.”

DEA spokesperson Amanda Wozniak wrote in an email that public descriptions suggesting the DEA knowingly permitted fentanyl to reach communities are false and “fundamentally mischaracterize the facts.” Wozniak said the investigations involved court-authorized wiretaps in which agents and prosecutors conducted real-time surveillance. intelligence gathering. and operational analysis targeting larger drug trafficking organizations.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Albuquerque also declined to answer questions directly about unseized shipments, but in a statement to AP said the “conduct” Howell brought to light happened during the prior administration.

In that statement, Tessa DuBerry, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Albuquerque, wrote that the office’s current leadership is focused on aggressively investigating and prosecuting fentanyl trafficking and disrupting the criminal organizations responsible for distributing these drugs.

The debate over whether to seize fentanyl has been shaped by evolving Justice Department rules. Adopted in 2017. the Justice Department’s two-page “Fentanyl Protocols” called on agents to “seize or otherwise prevent the distribution” of fentanyl “as soon as practicable. ” and said “protecting public safety is paramount. ” regardless of whether seizures compromise investigations. The rules were rewritten in 2024 to provide law enforcement more discretion. stating investigators “may exercise discretion in determining whether to take action to prevent the trafficking of fentanyl. ” balancing public safety risks against “the benefits to be achieved through preserving the investigation.”.

As agents worked under those frameworks, the tactic at the center of Howell’s allegations became difficult to reconcile with the DEA’s own public warning campaign about fentanyl’s danger. The DEA has emphasized “One Pill Can Kill” in an effort to highlight how quickly the opioid can kill.

Howell’s own shift from enforcement to warning others came with a personal cost. He said he began flagging overdose deaths that might have been caused by pills DEA permitted to flow to dealers. One case he described involved a 15-month-old toddler who died after ingesting burned fentanyl residue last year in Española. a New Mexico town ravaged by grinding poverty and addiction.

After Howell joined DEA 19 years ago following a decade in the Navy, he took his allegations to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel. That office found a “substantial likelihood of wrongdoing” and asked the Justice Department to investigate.

In early 2024. Howell also told the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility that DEA agents had observed—but not seized—separate deliveries of 150. 000 and 50. 000 fentanyl pills. He warned that DEA and prosecutors “are placing themselves in a precarious position where they will not be able to prove that the fentanyl they could have stopped did not result in the death of a person.”.

In 2024, the Office of Professional Responsibility found the DEA and the U.S. attorney’s office had made reasonable decisions in deciding to allow drugs to go unseized and concluded their inaction posed no “specific danger to public health.” The Office of Special Counsel. critics say rarely pushes back on agency findings. deemed the Justice Department’s report reasonable.

Howell said he paid a price after coming forward. DEA records and Howell’s account say he was relegated to desk duty for more than a year and docked in performance evaluations. Howell also said internal records show prosecutors barred him from testifying in federal court. citing a “pattern of refusing to heed” admonitions to allow drugs to go unseized during long-term investigations.

Others who have worked the issue said the watchdog findings did not match what they understood about fentanyl’s risk and the way the drug must be handled. Several current and former agents told AP they could not understand the Office of Professional Responsibility’s finding that the tactics had not put the public in danger. pointing to fentanyl’s special handling requirements in a laboratory.

In Albuquerque and across New Mexico, the stakes of these enforcement choices remain immediate. While overdose deaths nationwide fell 14% last year, New Mexico recorded a 21% spike, according to government data.

Alex Uballez, who served as U.S. attorney in New Mexico from 2022 through last year. said there were times when shipments went unseized as part of a broader effort to gather intelligence and 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 transaction.

Last year, DEA recorded the largest fentanyl bust in its history in Albuquerque.

“The bigger fish are worth catching,” Uballez said, “and that will save more lives.”

At the heart of the dispute is what remains unknown after drugs are allowed to walk. Uballez said estimated pill counts “based on intercepted phone calls are not reliable.” He said it’s difficult to know. in retrospect. “How much and how frequently — and with what certainty” such shipments resulted in deaths.

But Howell and critics argue that the decision—choosing cases over seizures—creates a moral and legal burden that should not be carried by communities already living through an overdose crisis.

DEA fentanyl Albuquerque whistleblower David Howell controlled deliveries U.S. Justice Department Office of Special Counsel overdose deaths