As New Mexico authorities sounded the alarm this month about a growing fentanyl crisis, a veteran Drug Enforcement Administration agent alleged the agency contributed to the problem by allowing the deadly pills to reach the streets.
“For three years, I’ve been telling my DEA managers that we’re allowing dangerous amounts of fentanyl onto the streets, and we’re doing nothing to stop it, and they haven’t listened to me,” DEA Special Agent David Howell told CBS News in his first television interview.
CBS News 
Howell, who is still an active agent, says the federal drug enforcement agency allowed millions of fentanyl pills to “circulate” — a tactic in which investigators allow drug dealers to distribute their product and then follow the trail to build bigger cases.
But because fentanyl is so deadly, Howell said this tactic has done more harm than good.
“At the DEA, we let the drugs hit the streets, yes. The difference is we were told not to do that 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 from the House Oversight Committee showed a person driving a white SUV picking up a child.
Obtained from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee 
“We knew we weren’t going to let the drugs … go down the street or go to the house when we knew the kid was in the car,” Howell said.
Officers in a black truck stopped the SUV, secured the child and arrested the suspect.
“We took his medication. We took his gun. It was in a little compartment under the seat that the child was sitting in,” Howell said.
Howell said officers found between 6,000 and 7,000 fentanyl pills in the vehicle.
Obtained from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee 
But he says they’ve faced backlash for taking fentanyl pills off the street.
“We thought the U.S. attorney’s office (for the District of New Mexico) would be satisfied,” Howell said. “Instead, they brought us into their office and reprimanded us. They were perfectly willing to allow this fentanyl into the house with the child.”
Howell’s whistleblower complaint was first reported last June by the Associated Press and the Albuquerque Journal.
New Mexico State Attorney General Raúl Torrez has sued the federal government over the practice of allowing fentanyl to circulate.
“There is no denying that New Mexico is moving in the wrong direction seems to be directly linked to this practice of walking fentanyl in this community,” Torrez said.
Authorities in the Albuquerque area have declared a state of emergency due to the increasing number of fentanyl overdose calls they are receiving.
The DEA and DOJ declined CBS News’ request for an interview, but the DOJ provided a statement saying, “When this whistleblower came forward, DEA Administrator Cole immediately requested an independent investigation by the DOJ IG.” This investigation is still ongoing and we cannot comment on the status of ongoing investigations. The DEA 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.”
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