{"id":4466,"date":"2026-08-31T06:01:37","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T13:01:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/infonews.ca\/news\/7856040\/house-republicans-launch-investigation-into-dea-tactic-that-allowed-fentanyl-to-hit-streets\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T07:00:02","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T14:00:02","slug":"dea-tactic-that-let-fentanyl-flood-the-streets-is-being-investigated-by-house-republicans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/infonews.ca\/in420\/news\/4466\/dea-tactic-that-let-fentanyl-flood-the-streets-is-being-investigated-by-house-republicans\/","title":{"rendered":"DEA tactic that let fentanyl flood the streets is being investigated by House Republicans"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI (AP) \u2014 A controversial policing tactic that permitted staggering amounts of deadly fentanyl<\/a> to reach the streets as federal authorities sought to build bigger drug cases is now under investigation by Republicans on the House Oversight Committee.<\/p>\n

The committee’s chairman, Rep. James Comer, a Republican from Kentucky, sent a letter Monday to Attorney General Todd Blanche requesting records related to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s<\/a> controversial strategy of monitoring \u2014 yet not seizing \u2014 major fentanyl shipments.<\/p>\n

The request echoes concerns raised by officials in New Mexico, the epicenter of the fentanyl crisis, where DEA whistleblowers recently reported being ordered to stand down rather than seize hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills in possible violation of Justice Department rules intended to safeguard communities. Last week, the state\u2019s attorney general, Ra\u00fal Torrez, sued the Justice Department seeking to force it to turn over some of the same records being sought by Republicans on Comer\u2019s committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile 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,\u201d Comer wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

The DEA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit and congressional inquiry come two months after an AP investigation<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

The fentanyl went unseized amid the deadliest drug epidemic in U.S. history and even as DEA led a public awareness campaign \u2014 \u201cOne Pill Can Kill\u201d \u2014 emphasizing that even a few milligrams of the substance can be lethal. Last year, the White House designated the synthetic opioid a \u201cweapon of mass destruction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Comer requested records covering only the Biden administration, citing what he described as its \u201crelaxation of fentanyl risk mitigation protocols\u201d developed during President Donald Trump’s first term. The protocols, Comer said, should have prevented the fentanyl from hitting the streets in such large numbers. <\/p>\n

The earlier policy, adopted in 2017, called on agents to \u201cseize or otherwise prevent the distribution\u201d of fentanyl \u201cas soon as practicable.\u201d The department rewrote those rules in 2024 to afford law enforcement far more discretion in whether to take action to prevent fentanyl trafficking, citing \u201cthe benefits to be achieved through preserving the investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

AP reporting found the investigative strategy \u2014 known as allowing drugs to \u201cwalk\u201d \u2014 continued into Trump’s second administration during the run-up to the largest fentanyl bust in DEA history, a takedown announced in May 2025 by then-Attorney General Pam Bondi. <\/p>\n

As part of that investigation, authorities seized some 3 million fentanyl pills. But even larger quantities went unseized as agents in Albuquerque stood by and watched as drug couriers entered hotels with backpacks believed to be carrying as many as 100,000 fentanyl pills. <\/p>\n

The entire network could have been dismantled six months earlier, according to a former DEA supervisor who worked on the case and is now among three whistleblowers sounding the alarm about the longstanding practice.<\/p>\n

The Justice Department’s internal watchdog this month announced a nationwide review<\/a> of government policies and wiretap investigations to determine whether federal authorities have used the same tactic elsewhere. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur investigations are long term and they are complex and they are done under the guidance of the law,\u201d DEA Administrator Terry Cole said in an interview this month with Fox News welcoming the inspector general\u2019s review. \u201cWe will continue to do that, but we need to stay 100% focused on the adversary.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Mustian reported from New York.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MIAMI (AP) \u2014 A controversial policing tactic that permitted staggering amounts of deadly fentanyl to reach the streets as federal authorities sought to build bigger drug cases is now under investigation by Republicans on the House Oversight Committee. The committee’s chairman, Rep. James Comer, a Republican from Kentucky, sent a letter Monday to Attorney General […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":521,"featured_media":4467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"guid":"5709ab65-7d1a-4baf-9d2b-6c328edf2393","source":"The Associated Press","byline":"Joshua Goodman And Jim Mustian","published":"2026-08-31 06:01:37","updated":"2026-08-31 06:46:33","_infotelid":"","_prepressid":"","_multisite_post_sync":"","_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[590,728,424,567],"tags":[],"region":[],"class_list":["post-4466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-international","category-lifestyles","category-world"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":7}},"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/infonews.ca\/in420\/news\/4466\/dea-tactic-that-let-fentanyl-flood-the-streets-is-being-investigated-by-house-republicans\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"DEA tactic that let fentanyl flood the streets is being investigated by House Republicans","url":"http:\/\/infonews.ca\/in420\/news\/4466\/dea-tactic-that-let-fentanyl-flood-the-streets-is-being-investigated-by-house-republicans\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/infonews.ca\/in420\/news\/4466\/dea-tactic-that-let-fentanyl-flood-the-streets-is-being-investigated-by-house-republicans\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/infonews.ca\/in420\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/in420-a56ba090b299c39480f60d40871072cfd1680ecc6345f18fcf0f72d6d05f7f4d.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/infonews.ca\/in420\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/in420-a56ba090b299c39480f60d40871072cfd1680ecc6345f18fcf0f72d6d05f7f4d.jpg"},"articleSection":"health","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Associated Press"}],"creator":["The Associated Press"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"iN420","logo":""},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2026-08-31T13:01:37Z","datePublished":"2026-08-31T13:01:37Z","dateModified":"2026-08-31T14:00:02Z"},"rendered":"