New Facts: Agent David Howell alleges DEA let fentanyl flow

From 2023 to 2025, agents tracked but did not seize multiple fentanyl shipments in New Mexico to build larger cases. They documented a June 2023 handoff of 74,000 pills at an Albuquerque mobile home park and, days earlier, a spare tire packed with suspected pills; neither load was taken. Months passed before arrests, and authorities cannot now account for the unseized pills.

In whistleblower filings, Special Agent David Howell said one probe allowed at least 1.8 million pills to be delivered, and he detailed separate observed but unseized drops of 150,000 and 50,000 pills. A former DEA supervisor said millions were let through and that the quantity later seized had been reaching the streets each month while the case ran. That investigation ended in May 2025 with the largest fentanyl bust in DEA history, more than 3 million pills.

Justice Department rules in 2017 told agents to seize fentanyl as soon as practical to protect the public; in 2024 they were rewritten to let investigators weigh public risk against keeping an investigation intact. The DEA says its decisions were lawful and consistent with that guidance and that it did not knowingly let fentanyl reach communities. The department’s internal watchdog later said allowing some shipments to proceed posed no specific danger to public health; after raising alarms, Howell was moved to desk duty for over a year and barred from testifying.

AI-synthesized from multiple reported sources