New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is calling on the federal government to compensate her state, alleging the Drug Enforcement Administration allowed millions of fentanyl pills to move through New Mexico as part of an undercover operation without alerting state or local authorities.
Describing the alleged operation as “the most derelict, despicable act in my long career,” Lujan Grisham said New Mexico has been left to spend more than $1.5 billion on law enforcement, behavioral health care, addiction treatment and broader public safety efforts as overdose deaths and substance abuse continue to strain communities.
“The DEA stood silently by and watched thousands of fentanyl pills get distributed with no arrests, no evidence, no notice that we know of anywhere else,” Lujan Grisham said at a Monday news conference. “Someone must pay for the damage to this state, the public safety risks that will be shared by everyone here for a decade.”
The governor said she wants Washington to repay New Mexico for the costs it has incurred responding to the fentanyl crisis, including policing operations, behavioral health programs, treatment services, overdose prevention work and other public safety measures.
She further urged Congress to bar the DEA from conducting similar operations in the future, require the federal government to cover expenses such actions impose on states and pursue personal accountability for officials involved.
“I’ve had to do this since 2019 three times,” Lujan Grisham said. “We’re here again, and this one, in fact, I think is the most devastating.”
The Democratic governor likened the situation to other federal actions she says harmed New Mexico, citing the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and U.S. Forest Service prescribed burns that ignited the largest wildfire in state history. That fire later led to a multibillion-dollar federal liability settlement, which she pointed to as a model for accountability in the DEA case.
Lujan Grisham said her administration has repeatedly pressed both the Biden and Trump administrations for additional federal support to address New Mexico’s worsening fentanyl epidemic, including more DEA personnel and coordinated enforcement operations, but said those appeals were not answered.
“Everybody behind me and the Office of the Governor have been asking both administrations… to do more about public safety in the state of New Mexico,” she said, adding that her administration held multiple meetings, sent multiple letters and requested additional resources and agents, yet “it’s been remarkably silent.”
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Lujan Grisham also urged lawmakers to require federal agencies to notify state and local officials before conducting similar operations, restore roughly $25 million in federal behavioral health and public safety funding she said has been cut and enact legislation preventing similar DEA tactics from being used in the future.
Her remarks came days after New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez announced a criminal investigation into allegations that the DEA knowingly allowed hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills to reach New Mexico communities while agents pursued larger criminal investigations.
The Associated Press previously reported that DEA agents repeatedly monitored, but did not seize, large fentanyl shipments between 2023 and 2025 while attempting to build broader criminal cases.
Torrez said the investigation will examine potential legal remedies, including criminal prosecution, civil litigation and structural reforms intended to prevent similar conduct by DEA agents in the future.
“The families who have lost children, siblings, and parents to fentanyl deserve the truth about what the federal government knew and what it failed to do,” Torrez said in a statement.
“If the DEA stood by while poison flooded our communities, that is not a bureaucratic failure,” he continued. “It is a betrayal of the people it was sworn to protect.”
Torrez said his office “will pursue every legal avenue available to hold the responsible parties accountable and make certain this never happens again.”
On Monday, Lujan Grisham echoed Torrez’s call for accountability, saying those who approved or oversaw the operation should face consequences.
“I want the people who knew this distribution was occurring without notifying anyone and allowing it to occur over and over again held accountable,” Lujan Grisham said. “My bet is many of those people are still in that DEA office.”
“I am so angry. This is an outrage,” she added. “They should be accountable for the length of time it’s going to take us to combat the scourge of addiction and fentanyl overdose deaths.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to the DEA for comment on the matter.
