Oversight committee investigates fentanyl policing

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(The Center Square) - The U.S. House Oversight Committee is investigating drug enforcement practices that allowed fentanyl to be sold throughout communities in the country.

Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., sent a letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche on Monday highlighting the issue and requesting documents associated with the enforcement practice.

In the letter, Comer alleged the Drug Enforcement Administration under President Joe Biden allowed shipments of up to 100,000 pills to remain in the hands of criminals. DEA agents monitored the pill shipments in New Mexico between 2023 and 2025 but did not stop them.

The Biden administration said it did not stop the shipments in order to build a bigger case to prosecute more involved criminals.

“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 in a letter to Blanche.

Comer said communities in New Mexico faced harm from the actions of federal authorities. He said New Mexico reported a 21% increase in fentanyl poisoning deaths compared to a 14% decrease in the United States overall.

The oversight committee requested a slew of records as part of its investigation into the practice including all communications between DEA offices and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Mexico, documents on fentanyl-related deaths tied to criminals under surveillance by DEA, and communications on monitoring the disbursement of fentanyl throughout the state.

“The true cost of the DEA's fentanyl walking policy in American lives may never be fully known," Empower Oversight president Tristan Leavitt told The Center Square in an emailed statement. Empower Oversight represents the whistleblower, DEA Special Agent David Howell, who first brought this policy to light. "But transparency into the decision-making that allowed this practice under the Biden administration is not just warranted, it is owed to the families who lost a loved one. Chairman Comer is right to demand answers about how and why this policy was allowed.”

New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez sued the U.S. Department of Justice last week seeking some of the same records requested by the Oversight Committee.

“Fentanyl is devasting families across New Mexico, and we deserve to know the truth about the DEA’s practice of allowing that poison to flow into our communities,” Torrez said. 

The committee is also looking for documents and communications associated with relaxing implementation of the Trump administration’s 2019 fentanyl risk mitigation protocols. The policy would require investigative agents to apply for a search warrant if they reasonably believed fentanyl was being used or shipped across a criminal network.

The Oversight Committee is seeking any documents related to relaxing implementation of the fentanyl risk mitigation protocol in states outside of New Mexico.

“Biden’s DEA knew fentanyl was flooding America’s streets and did nothing,” Comer wrote on social media. “Americans paid the price with their lives.”

In December, the White House designated fentanyl as a “weapon of mass destruction.”

“Illicit fentanyl is closer to a chemical weapon than a narcotic,” Trump said. “The manufacture and distribution of fentanyl, primarily performed by organized criminal networks, threatens our national security and fuels lawlessness in our hemisphere and at our borders.”

Comer gave Blanche a deadline of Sept. 14 to receive all documents related to his request as the committee mulls its investigation.