DOJ IG launches probe into DEA fentanyl tactics

The Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General is launching a nationwide review of the DEA’s fentanyl investigations, with a specific focus on New Mexico and the last two years of actions. The probe centers on the controversial practice of letting fentanyl shipments reach the streets to bolster larger drug-trafficking cases, an approach critics say jeopardizes public safety. Whistleblowers, including Agent David Howell, have alleged missed seizures and mischaracterizations of fentanyl versus other drugs, highlighted by examples such as a 74,000-pill shipment in Albuquerque that was not intercepted. The investigation will examine risk-management policies, interdiction decisions, and how investigations were conducted, while avoiding substituting the agency’s legal judgments for the inspector general’s findings. New Mexico’s attorney general has already opened an inquiry, and DEA Administrator Terry Cole requested a narrower external review related to Howell’s whistleblower complaint. The effort follows extensive reporting by the Associated Press and others, which described widespread “walk” tactics and raised concerns about the potential risk to communities amid the fentanyl crisis.