DEA asks watchdog to investigate claims that agents permitted fentanyl to hit the streets

The federal Drug Enforcement Administration on Thursday asked the U.S. Justice Department’s internal watchdog to investigate a whistleblower's claims that DEA agents permitted hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills to hit the streets of New Mexico.

The request came days after an Associated Press investigation found agents repeatedly monitored — but did not seize — major shipments of the synthetic opioid in a bid to build bigger criminal cases between 2023 and 2025.

In a letter sent Thursday to the U.S. Justice Department's Inspector General, DEA administrator Terry Cole wrote that an internal probe was necessary because “the allegations have generated significant public attention and have raised questions regarding DEA’s operational decisions, supervisory oversight, and response to concerns.”

Cole wrote in a public statement that his request “should not be interpreted as reflecting any lack of confidence in the professionalism or integrity of DEA personnel or in the investigative decisions made during this matter.”

“If improvements are identified, DEA will implement them,” he added. “Strong institutions are sustained — not diminished — by objective oversight and a willingness to continuously assess and improve.”

Current and former DEA agents told the AP the investigative strategy — known as letting the counterfeit painkillers “walk” — amounted to a gamble with public safety in a state ravaged by the fentanyl epidemic and may have violated Justice Department rules intended to safeguard communities from a drug the White House last year designated as a “ weapon of mass destruction.”

The AP investigation cited three current and former agents and government records, including an internal report of a 2023 delivery of 74,000 pills the DEA watched happen at a mobile home park in Albuquerque. One of those agents, David Howell, first raised serious concerns about this strategy in a 2023 whistleblower complaint. He continued to raise his objections internally and spoke at length with the AP about what he described as a strategy that “poisoned our community to make cases."

In an earlier statement to AP, a DEA spokesperson said "public descriptions suggesting that DEA knowingly permitted fentanyl to reach communities are false and fundamentally mischaracterize the facts."

The DEA's request for the watchdog investigation came just a day after New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham asked the state’s attorney general to examine whether the agency’s actions violated New Mexico law, an extraordinary challenge to a federal law enforcement agency at a time when fentanyl remains one of the country’s deadliest public health threats.

“There are no words to describe how reckless and dangerous these decisions were,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “Make no mistake: the DEA knew people would die if these pills made it into New Mexico communities, and the agency let it happen anyway.”

The Justice Department said in a statement that it welcomes a partnership with New Mexico leaders to keep the state safe.

"Protecting the public requires more than addressing individual transactions as they occur," the statement said. “It requires identifying the sources of supply, the individuals directing criminal activity and the organizations responsible for moving dangerous drugs into our communities.”

Democratic lawmakers in New Mexico, meanwhile, sent Cole a letter asking for a briefing on the DEA's tactics in the state.

“New Mexicans are paying the price for a fentanyl epidemic that is tearing families apart and deserve answers," U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury said in a statement. “At a time when overdose deaths continue to devastate our state and communities, the DEA should be focused on stopping these drugs before they reach our streets — period.”

Associated Press reporter Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington contributed to this report.

DEA Special Agent David Howell, who filed a whistleblower complaint, poses for a portrait outside the U.S. district courthouse in Albuquerque, N.M., on Friday, June 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)

This photo provided by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration shows pills containing fentanyl which were seized by the DEA in New Mexico, on April 28, 2025. (DEA via AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani barreled into City Hall vowing to tackle the city's notoriously high cost of living, partly by fulfilling a campaign promise repeated with almost monomaniacal zeal in social media ads, speeches and rallies: “As your next mayor, I will freeze your rent.”

On Thursday evening, a board he controls is poised to make good on that signature pledge.

The city's Rent Guidelines Board, an independent panel of mayoral appointees, is poised to approve a rent freeze for people living in about 1 million rent-stabilized apartments.

The vote, while expected, is a big win for Mamdani, allowing him to beat back skepticism over his ability to deliver on his affordability agenda. And it came just two days after he made a splash as a budding progressive kingmaker when three congressional candidates he endorsed won their races in stunning fashion, unseating two Democratic incumbents and bucking the party establishment.

Real estate groups say a rent freeze would pinch landlords, leaving them struggling to afford routine maintenance or other repairs. They say property owners have also been hit by rising costs and need to keep pace with inflation. Critics of rent regulation also argue that the policy leads to higher rental costs for non-stabilized units.

“This will only result in more dilapidated housing and potentially more foreclosures and bankruptcies, which the city is wholly unprepared for,” said Kenny Burgos, CEO of the New York Apartment Association, a landlord lobbying group.

A legal challenge is expected over the board's vote. One of its members, an appointee representing landlords, resigned in protest as she claimed the board's independence had been compromised.

“The Rent Guidelines Board has stopped being a fact-finding body,” former board member Christina Smyth wrote in her resignation letter, which she provided to The Associated Press. “It has become a body that starts with an answer and vibe codes its way backward to justify it.”

Mamdani — who lived in a rent-stabilized apartment in Queens with his wife before moving this year into Gracie Mansion, the city's stately mayoral residence — appointed a majority of the board's members a little over a month into his term, signaling a focus on the freeze.

He has said most New Yorkers are desperately in need of relief from high housing costs.

Around 2 million people live in the highly sought-after rent stabilized units, which comprise about 40% of the city's housing stock. While the apartments are privately owned, the city board votes each year on the maximum allowed rent increase.

The board has frozen rents in the past, most recently under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, but then approved modest increases under Mamdani's predecessor, former Mayor Eric Adams. All three mayors are Democrats. Last year, the board approved an increase of up to 3% on one-year leases and up to 4.5% on two-year leases.

There are no income limits that determine who can live in rent-stabilized units, and it is not uncommon for higher income people to live in such apartments, which has drawn criticism.

During last year's mayoral race, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo called on Mamdani — then a state Assembly member earning just under a $150,000 salary — to vacate his rent stabilized unit, calling the arrangement “disgusting" as he argued the apartment should go to someone making less money.

FILE - Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani arrives at the NBC studios to participate in a Democratic mayoral primary debate, June 4, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, Pool, File)