As New Mexico officials sounded the alarm this month about a growing fentanyl crisis, a veteran DEA agent has alleged that the agency has contributed to the problem by allowing the deadly pills to hit the streets. “For three years, I’ve told my DEA managers that we’re allowing dangerous amounts of fentanyl to hit the streets, and we’re doing nothing to stop it, and they didn’t listen to me,” DEA Special Agent David Howell told CBS News in his first television interview. DEA Special Agent David Howell. CBS News Howell, who is still an active agent, claims the federal drug enforcement agency has allowed millions of fentanyl pills to “walk,” a tactic in which investigators allow drug dealers to distribute their product and then follow the trail to build larger cases. But because fentanyl is so deadly, Howell said the tactic has done more harm than good. “We at the DEA have let drugs go out on the streets, yes. The difference was that they told us not to do it with fentanyl,” he said. In 2023, Howell was part of a team tracking a suspect in Albuquerque from the air. Footage obtained by CBS News from congressional investigators on the House Oversight Committee showed a person driving a white van picking up a child. Aerial view of a white van subject to a DEA investigation in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Retrieved from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform “We knew we weren’t going to let the drugs… get out on the street or go into the house when we knew the child was in the car,” Howell said. Officers in a black van stopped the van, secured the child and detained the suspect. “We took his drugs. We took his gun. It was in a little compartment under the seat the boy was sitting in,” Howell said. Howell said officers found between 6,000 and 7,000 fentanyl pills in the vehicle. Photos showing fentanyl pills and a gun seized by the DEA. Retrieved from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. But he says they faced backlash for taking fentanyl pills off the streets. “We believe that the United States Attorney’s Office [for the District of New Mexico] We would be happy,” Howell said. “Instead, they took us to their office and berated us. They were perfectly willing to allow the fentanyl to go into the house with the child.” The Howell whistleblower complaint was first reported last June by the Associated Press and Albuquerque Journal. New Mexico State Attorney General Raul Torrez has sued the federal government over the practice of letting fentanyl walk. “There is no escaping the conclusion that New Mexico moving in the wrong direction appears to be directly related to this practice of letting fentanyl walk in this community,” Torrez he said. Officials in the broader Albuquerque area have declared a state of emergency due to the increasing number of calls about fentanyl overdoses they are receiving. The DEA and DOJ declined CBS News’ request for an interview, but the DOJ provided a statement that said: “When this whistleblower came forward, DEA Administrator Cole immediately requested an independent investigation by the DOJ IG. That investigation remains ongoing and we cannot comment on the status of ongoing investigations.” The DEA has also said, “If improvements are identified, the DEA will implement them.” “Our city is being destroyed by this drug,” Howell said. “That’s why we’re sitting here, and that’s what I’m here to tell people.” More from CBS News Go deeper with The Free Press at:
