Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
The US Justice Department’s internal watchdog has announced a review of a controversial law enforcement tactic in which federal authorities allowed fentanyl to reach the streets while building bigger cases against drug traffickers. The review was announced on Monday and will examine whether the US Drug Enforcement Administration knew about some fentanyl deliveries in advance but chose not to intervene so as not to jeopardise larger prosecutions.
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The inquiry comes amid scrutiny over the practice of allowing drugs to “walk”, which current and former agents said put public safety at risk and may have breached Justice Department rules meant to protect communities from fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that the White House last year called a “weapon of mass destruction”. The review was disclosed in a news release by Justice Department Inspector General Don Berthiaume, one of his first official actions since he was sworn in on Friday.
The move follows an Associated Press investigation published less than two months ago, which found that DEA agents repeatedly monitored but did not seize major fentanyl shipments in New Mexico between 2023 and 2025. The DEA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. DEA Administrator Terry Cole had sought a narrower inspector general inquiry after the AP report, including a review of how the agency handled a whistleblower complaint filed by Agent David Howell.
In an earlier statement, Cole said his request for an outside inquiry “should not be interpreted as reflecting any lack of confidence in the professionalism or integrity of DEA personnel”. Howell told AP that federal authorities “poisoned our community to make cases” in New Mexico. An internal DEA report reviewed by AP said the agency watched and chose not to interdict a delivery of 74,000 fentanyl pills at a mobile home park in Albuquerque.
That shipment was not seized during what AP described as the deadliest drug epidemic in US history, even as the DEA was running its public awareness campaign, “One Pill Can Kill”, warning that even a few milligrams of fentanyl can be lethal. The inspector general said the review will focus on Justice Department actions over the past two years and could determine whether the DEA allowed similar shipments to go ahead in other cities. Howell said he expects the review to show that federal authorities “endangered the public through willful inaction”.
The review also comes as authorities in New Mexico continue to investigate whether DEA agents broke state law by allowing hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills to reach the streets of Albuquerque. State Attorney General Ral Torrez recently threatened to sue the Justice Department after it refused to provide a list of records he had sought. The DEA has also not allowed Howell to be interviewed by state authorities. In a letter to federal authorities earlier this month, Torrez wrote, “The state is bearing the societal and financial harms of an influx of fentanyl into its communities.”
In recent weeks, two more DEA whistleblowers in New Mexico have come forward. One said colleagues failed to seize 350,000 fentanyl pills that they learned about during the first call intercepted in a 2024 wiretap investigation. That shipment was part of an inquiry that later resulted in the largest fentanyl seizure in DEA history. Court records show agents had chances to seize thousands of fentanyl pills but allowed trafficking to continue for months while the investigation went on. The other whistleblower filed a complaint this month alleging that colleagues monitored but did not arrest a drug courier who made repeated fentanyl deliveries from Phoenix to Albuquerque between 2022 and 2023, with each delivery estimated at between 50,000 and 100,000 pills that were not seized.
The inspector general’s review will now examine how the Justice Department and the DEA handled such cases over the past two years, against the backdrop of allegations that agents allowed dangerous quantities of fentanyl to circulate while pursuing larger trafficking investigations.
With PTI Inputs
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
