Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham called for a state investigation after AP and Albuquerque Journal reporting found federal agents allowed fentanyl shipments to go unseized during wiretap investigations.

Damien Willis, Organ Mountain News

SANTA FE - Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is asking New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez to review whether federal law enforcement agents violated state law while handling fentanyl shipments during drug investigations in New Mexico.

The request follows reporting by the Associated Press and an Albuquerque Journal investigation that described federal drug cases in which authorities tracked suspected fentanyl shipments but did not immediately seize the pills or make arrests.

Lujan Grisham said Wednesday that she wrote to Torrez asking him to investigate whether federal agents broke state law by allowing fentanyl to remain in New Mexico communities. She also asked him to prosecute anyone found responsible.

“I am appalled by reporting this week by the Associated Press and Albuquerque Journal that revealed federal authorities made a deliberate decision to let hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills flood into New Mexico communities,” Lujan Grisham said.

The governor said New Mexicans should not be treated as collateral damage in federal drug investigations.

“New Mexican lives are not the federal government’s cost of doing business,” she said.

What the reporting found

The Associated Press reported this week that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration allowed hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills to reach New Mexico between 2023 and 2025, citing government records and interviews with current and former DEA agents.

AP reported that agents tracked suspected fentanyl deliveries while federal prosecutors worked to build cases against larger trafficking organizations.

The Albuquerque Journal reported Sunday that federal authorities did not stop large quantities of illicit fentanyl from reaching New Mexico communities even though earlier internal guidance said protecting public safety was “paramount.” The Journal reported that federal court records in Albuquerque showed multiple fentanyl sales unfolded without immediate seizures or arrests by the DEA or federal prosecutors.

Both reports centered in part on David Howell, a longtime DEA agent in Albuquerque who filed a whistleblower complaint in 2023. The Journal reported that Howell alleged more than 300,000 fentanyl pills had reached Albuquerque and other communities by September 2024.

AP reported that Howell told federal investigators DEA agents had watched separate deliveries involving 150,000 and 50,000 fentanyl pills that were not seized.

AP also reported that agents surveilled a June 2023 transaction at an Albuquerque mobile home park after decoding cellphone conversations. According to AP, agents wrote in a report that traffickers delivered 74,000 pills in that transaction, a number later cited by federal prosecutors in court.

Federal officials defend the strategy

The DEA has denied that it permitted suspected fentanyl sales to be completed in New Mexico wiretap investigations.

The Journal reported that the DEA said no suspected fentanyl transactions were allowed to successfully occur in New Mexico wiretap cases. AP reported that the agency said the decisions were lawful, reasonable and consistent with Department of Justice guidance.

The Journal also reported that the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility found Albuquerque-based agents and prosecutors acted within their discretion in the cases it reviewed.

Former U.S. Attorney for New Mexico Alex Uballez, who left office in early 2025, defended the broader investigative strategy in interviews with AP and the Journal. He said authorities sometimes need to delay enforcement against lower-level participants to build cases against higher-level traffickers.

Lujan Grisham rejected that explanation.

“If the justification for letting these pills flood our communities was that it would somehow make New Mexico safer down the road through bigger eventual busts, the results say otherwise,” she said.

New Mexico’s overdose crisis

The governor tied the reports to New Mexico’s overdose crisis, saying the state has led the nation in the increase in overdose deaths for the second straight year while overdose deaths have declined nationally.

The Journal reported that drug overdose deaths fell 14.4% nationally from January 2025 to January 2026 while increasing nearly 23% in New Mexico, citing federal data. AP reported that New Mexico recorded a 21% increase in overdose deaths while deaths fell nationally.

Lujan Grisham said her administration has repeatedly asked federal officials for more help responding to drug trafficking and violent crime.

Her office said she wrote to FBI Director Christopher Wray in June 2022 seeking at least 50 additional agents in New Mexico. The governor’s office also said she wrote multiple times to then-Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2022 and 2023 seeking more federal resources and wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi in September 2025 requesting additional agents and support.

Lujan Grisham has declared fentanyl and other drugs a public health emergency and deployed the National Guard to Albuquerque and Española.

“While my administration was doing everything we could to stem the tide of fentanyl coming into our state, the federal government deliberately allowed it to flood in,” she said.

What happens next

Lujan Grisham said she plans to explore “every possible avenue of action” against the federal government.

Torrez’s office had not immediately announced whether it would open an investigation.

Damien Willis is founder and editor of Organ Mountain News. If you have a personal story to share or a lead we should follow up on, reach out at OrganMountainNews@gmail.com or connect with him on X at @damienwillis.