Staggering fentanyl amounts hit streets as experts express concerns
Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer examines an Associated Press investigation into New Mexico’s fentanyl crisis, which alleges the DEA permitted more than one million pills to move into communities between 2023 and 2025. Tristan Leavitt, an attorney representing DEA whistleblowers, says agents stood by as the lethal drug circulated. Medical analyst Dr. Marc Siegel also points to a 21% increase in overdose deaths in New Mexico.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is pressing Washington for reparations, accusing the Drug Enforcement Administration of letting millions of fentanyl pills enter the state as part of an undercover operation carried out without alerting state or local authorities.
Describing the alleged operation as “the most derelict, despicable act in my long career,” Lujan Grisham said its consequences have driven New Mexico to spend more than $1.5 billion on policing, behavioral health programs, addiction treatment and broader public safety efforts as the state confronts overdose deaths and entrenched addiction.
“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 is seeking federal reimbursement for the resources New Mexico has dedicated to fighting the fentanyl epidemic, including enforcement efforts, behavioral health care, addiction services, overdose prevention programs and other public safety measures.
A Drug Enforcement Administration chemist examines seized powder containing fentanyl at the DEA Northeast Regional Laboratory on Oct. 8, 2019, in New York. (Don EMMERT / AFP via Getty Images)
Lujan Grisham further urged Congress to block similar DEA operations going forward, mandate full federal funding for any costs such operations place on states, and ensure that officials involved face personal accountability.
“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.”
New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham speaks at a rally hosted by the Democratic Party of New Mexico at Ted M. Gallegos Community Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on November 3, 2022. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
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The Democratic governor compared the controversy to previous federal failures she said harmed New Mexico, including the federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the U.S. Forest Service’s prescribed burns that sparked the state’s largest wildfire. She noted the wildfire ultimately resulted in a multibillion-dollar federal liability settlement, arguing the DEA operation should lead to similar accountability.
Lujan Grisham said her administration repeatedly asked both the Biden and Trump administrations for more federal resources to combat New Mexico’s escalating fentanyl crisis, including additional DEA agents and coordinated enforcement efforts, but those requests went unanswered.
“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.”
Fentanyl pills seized in New Mexico on April 28, 2025, as the agency faces scrutiny over allegations it allowed other shipments to reach the streets. (DEA via AP)
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.”
News Agency has reached out to the DEA for comment on the matter.
