By MES Dispatch Staff
The Briefing
- House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., sent a letter Monday to Attorney General Todd Blanche requesting records on the DEA’s practice of monitoring, rather than seizing, major fentanyl shipments.
- An Associated Press investigation found DEA agents repeatedly monitored major fentanyl shipments in New Mexico between 2023 and 2025 that were allowed to reach the streets as authorities built larger criminal cases.
- New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez sued the Justice Department last week seeking related records; DEA whistleblowers have said they were ordered to stand down rather than seize hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills.
- Comer’s request covers the Biden administration’s 2024 policy change, which gave agents more discretion than 2017 rules requiring shipments to be seized “as soon as practicable.”
- The Justice Department’s inspector general announced a nationwide review this month to determine whether the same tactic, known as letting drugs “walk,” was used elsewhere.
WASHINGTON — The House Oversight Committee is investigating a Drug Enforcement Administration practice of monitoring, rather than seizing, major fentanyl shipments as part of an effort to build larger criminal cases, according to a letter reviewed by the Associated Press.
Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., sent the letter Monday to Attorney General Todd Blanche requesting records related to the strategy. “While DEA agents may not have the resources to intercept every single known shipment, a policy directing them not to intercept significant shipments is unconscionable and undoubtedly resulted in considerable harm and lives lost,” Comer wrote. The DEA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The congressional inquiry follows an AP investigation published two months ago that found DEA agents repeatedly monitored major fentanyl shipments in New Mexico between 2023 and 2025 that were allowed to hit the streets as federal authorities built out criminal cases. The fentanyl went unseized during what officials have called the deadliest drug epidemic in U.S. history, even as the DEA ran a public awareness campaign warning that small amounts of the drug can be lethal.
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez sued the Justice Department last week seeking many of the same records Comer is requesting. DEA whistleblowers have said they were ordered to stand down rather than seize hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills, in what they described as a possible violation of Justice Department rules meant to protect communities.
Comer’s request targets a 2024 policy change made during the Biden administration that gave agents greater discretion over whether to intervene in fentanyl trafficking, citing the investigative benefits of allowing shipments to proceed. That policy replaced 2017 rules requiring agents to seize or otherwise prevent fentanyl distribution “as soon as practicable.”
According to the AP, the tactic continued into the current Trump administration ahead of the largest fentanyl bust in DEA history, a takedown announced in May 2025 that seized about 3 million fentanyl pills. Even larger quantities went unseized as agents in Albuquerque watched couriers carry backpacks believed to hold as many as 100,000 pills, according to a former DEA supervisor who worked on the case and is now one of three whistleblowers raising concerns about the practice.
The Justice Department’s inspector general announced a nationwide review this month of related policies and wiretap investigations to determine whether the tactic was used in other jurisdictions. DEA Administrator Terry Cole said in a Fox News interview this month that the agency’s investigations “are long term and they are complex and they are done under the guidance of the law,” adding that the agency welcomes the review.