House GOP probes DEA policy that let massive fentanyl shipments slip by
The House Oversight Committee, led by Rep. James Comer, has opened an inquiry into a DEA practice of monitoring but not seizing large fentanyl shipments, a tactic that may have flooded streets with the drug.
Republican members of the House Oversight Committee have initiated a probe into a DEA strategy that permitted sizable fentanyl shipments to reach the public while authorities assembled larger criminal cases. Chairman James Comer mailed a letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche asking for records covering the Biden administration, citing what he calls a relaxation of risk-mitigation protocols originally set in 2017. The request mirrors a recent lawsuit filed by New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, which also seeks those documents.
An AP investigation revealed that from 2023 to 2025 DEA agents in New Mexico watched shipments from helicopters and surveillance vehicles without seizing them, even as the agency ran a “One Pill Can Kill” campaign. The policy was rewritten in 2024 to grant agents broader discretion, a practice that continued into the Trump era and preceded a massive 2025 bust of three million pills. A former DEA supervisor, now a whistleblower, says the network could have been dismantled earlier. The Justice Department’s internal watchdog has begun a nationwide review of the tactic, while DEA Administrator Terry Cole defended the approach as legally guided and necessary for long-term investigations.
Why it matters
Understanding this policy could reveal why fentanyl floods have persisted and inform future drug-enforcement reforms.
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