The U.S. House members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation are opening an investigation into reports that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration allowed large fentanyl shipments into the state in the hopes of busting larger drug trafficking operations.
Those allegations, from a DEA whistleblower and records, come via reporting by the Albuquerque Journal and the Associated Press. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Wednesday evening announced she was asking state Attorney General Raúl Torrez to investigate “whether any federal agents broke state law when they allowed lethal drugs to remain on our streets, and to prosecute anyone responsible — regardless of whether they are a federal agent or not.”
The New Mexico Department of Justice on Thursday afternoon confirmed it had receive the governor’s letter. NMDOJ Chief of Staff Lauren Rodriguez, in a statement, said the agency “shares the deep concern expressed by communities across our state” in response to the reporting. “Fentanyl has devastated too many New Mexico families, and any allegation that dangerous drugs were knowingly allowed to reach our communities demands careful and serious attention.” The office, she said, was already monitoring the situation and is “determining the appropriate next steps. New Mexicans deserve transparency, accountability, and the assurance that every law enforcement agency charged with protecting public safety is acting with the urgency this crisis requires.”
During a news conference Thursday afternoon, Democratic U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury, who represents the state’s 1st Congressional District, announced she and the all-Democratic delegation that includes U.S. Reps. Teresa Leger Fernández and Gabe Vasquez, were opening an investigation “into the DEA and federal law enforcement to understand how this occurred; why the DEA conducted a policy that allowed dangerous fentanyl pills to enter our communities, to remain on the streets; what was the outcome of this case; and to what extent we know it may have harmed our communities.”
Stansbury also released a Thursday letter from the three representatives to DEA Administrator Terrance Cole requesting a briefing within 30 days on the agency’s “latest efforts to combat fentanyl trafficking in New Mexico,” including how many instances the office, in coordination with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico, “knowingly declined to interdict, seize, or make arrests related to fentanyl shipments identified through wiretap investigations in New Mexico and nationally,” and the estimated quantity of fentanyl involved all instances.
Stansbury said conversations with local law enforcement entities over the last few days revealed that local police chiefs and sheriffs were unaware of multi-state federal drug investigations that included activities in New Mexico.
“During that time there were multiple operations in which fentanyl pills were allowed to be sold by larger dealers on the streets, and it appears based on the whistleblower’s allegations that those drugs were never recovered,” Stansbury said. “Now, if that is indeed the case, there was certainly misconduct. If this is part of a larger policy of the DEA, certainly fentanyl is not a drug that should be allowed to be handled in this manner, and it’s clear that if this is actually what transpired, that New Mexicans may have paid with their lives.”
When asked for comment, a DEA spokesperson referred Source NM to a statement by DEA administrator Cole asking the U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General to “conduct an independent review of DEA’s actions in connection with an investigation that has become the subject of public allegations.” A DEA spokesperson previously told the Associated Press that “public descriptions suggesting that DEA knowingly permitted fentanyl to reach communities are false and fundamentally mischaracterize the facts.”
New Mexico House Speaker Rep. Javier Martínez (D-Albuquerque) joined Stansbury in the news conference and expressed support for both a congressional investigation and the governor’s call for a state one. He also echoed concerns about the lives that may have been lost as a result of federal law enforcement allowing deadly fentanyl pills onto the street, given that just one can be deadly.
“The fact that they allowed hundreds of thousands to flood our streets is unimaginable,” Martínez said. “And let that sink in. The federal law enforcement agency that’s responsible for protecting us from dangerous drugs released enough lethal pills to wipe out half of our city.”
Both Stansbury and Martínez also noted New Mexico’s ongoing struggle with opioid addiction and overdose. The state’s drug overdose death rate has been one of the highest in the nation for most of the last two decades, and has more than tripled since 1990.
“I think it’s fair to say that there’s probably not a single New Mexican whose life has not been touched in some way by the fentanyl and opioid and addiction crisis in New Mexico,” Stansbury said. “I myself have lost multiple family members and friends to the opioid crisis, and I can’t even wrap my mind around the idea that federal law enforcement may have been responsible for some of the pills that hit the streets in New Mexico.”
