The federal government's explanation fits in a sentence. A former federal official who served from May 2022 to February 2025 told the Associated Press that drugs sometimes went unseized because his office had limited resources, and because he believed prosecuting larger organizations has "a bigger impact."
Here is what the bigger impact looked like on the ground in New Mexico.
An AP investigation found that Drug Enforcement Administration agents repeatedly watched major fentanyl shipments move through the state between 2023 and 2025 instead of seizing them, while they built cases against higher-ranking traffickers. The Albuquerque Journal put the number at more than 300,000 pills. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said agents monitored the delivery of 74,000 fentanyl pills to a mobile home park in Albuquerque and did not step in.
New Mexico ranks among the states hit hardest by fentanyl deaths.
The agents
The first to go on record was David Howell, a 19-year DEA agent in Albuquerque, who filed a whistleblower complaint. He told the AP that federal authorities "poisoned our community to make cases."
Two more DEA whistleblowers in New Mexico have since come forward. One said colleagues failed to seize 350,000 fentanyl pills they learned about on the very first call intercepted in a 2024 wiretap. That investigation went on to produce what the DEA has called the largest fentanyl seizure in its history.
The record seizure got the press conference. The 350,000 pills on the first call got the street.
The state
On June 24, Lujan Grisham asked Attorney General Raúl Torrez to investigate. Two days later Torrez opened a formal inquiry and said it would weigh criminal prosecution, civil litigation and structural relief. He wrote that if the allegations are accurate, the consequences for New Mexicans were fatal.
Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller, Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen and House Speaker Javier Martínez joined the calls for accountability, along with City Councilors Joaquin Baca, Nichole Rogers and Stephanie Telles.
The wall
Torrez's office asked the federal government for the DEA's records. The U.S. Justice Department said no. New Mexico challenged the denial, arguing the U.S. Attorney's Office imposed legal requirements that do not exist under federal rules, and set an updated deadline of Aug. 17 to start receiving records.
On Aug. 27, Torrez sued the federal government for the records. On Aug. 31, House Republicans opened their own probe. The Justice Department's inspector general has also opened a review of the tactic.
Four months in, nothing in the public record shows New Mexico has received a single DEA document.
The questions
For the New Mexico Department of Justice: Has the state received any DEA records since filing suit? Is a state criminal charge against any federal agent still under consideration?
For the DEA and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Mexico: How many fentanyl pills did agents knowingly allow to move through New Mexico between 2023 and 2025? Who approved it?
For the Justice Department Office of the Inspector General: When will the review be finished, and will it be made public?
The families of the people who died in those two years are owed the number. Nobody has given it to them.
This story is built from public reporting and records through Oct. 20, 2026: the Associated Press, the Albuquerque Journal, Source NM, the Santa Fe New Mexican, ABC News, PBS NewsHour, Fox News, and press releases from the New Mexico Department of Justice. The pill counts are as reported by the AP, the Journal and the governor; the DEA has not published its own figures. The allegations come from whistleblower complaints and have not been tested in court. Questions were sent Oct. 20 to the DEA, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Mexico and the New Mexico Department of Justice. The Justice Department's inspector general is being contacted. Responses will be added with a dated update. Disclosure: Pesach Lattin also publishes ADOTAT and The Arizona Inquirer and is principal of ANIA, a privately held, independent intelligence firm that is not a government agency; nothing from ANIA work is used in this story. The New Mexico Inquirer is reader-supported. No paid placement in editorial. Tips and corrections: [email protected] or 505-932-9060.