House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer is investigating Biden administration DEA practices in New Mexico that allegedly allowed fentanyl shipments of up to 100,000 pills to remain in criminal networks rather than be intercepted.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., launched a congressional investigation Monday into Biden administration Drug Enforcement Administration operations that allegedly allowed large quantities of fentanyl to continue circulating through criminal networks in New Mexico while federal agents monitored the shipments.
The investigation centers on what Comer described as a reversal of safeguards established during President Donald Trump’s first administration to prevent fentanyl from reaching the public.
In a letter to U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, Comer said the Biden administration relaxed risk-mitigation protocols and that the changes contributed to additional fentanyl-related deaths in New Mexico.
The Oversight Committee is now seeking records and communications surrounding the decisions that led to the altered enforcement practices.
“The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is investigating the Biden Administration’s relaxation of fentanyl risk mitigation protocols that allegedly disallowed interdictions by law enforcement and permitted deadly street drugs to flow into U.S. communities,” Comer said in a statement.
The dispute traces back to November 2019, when the Trump administration’s Justice Department established risk-mitigation protocols intended to account for fentanyl’s extreme lethality during law enforcement operations.
Those procedures prioritized preventing controlled drug shipments from escaping surveillance or otherwise reaching the public.
According to the congressional announcement, DEA operations in New Mexico moved away from those protocols in early 2023 under the Biden administration.
Comer alleges that agents were permitted to leave shipments containing as many as 100,000 fentanyl pills in the possession of criminal suspects rather than immediately seizing the narcotics.
The practice became known as “walking fentanyl,” referring to controlled or monitored drug shipments that were allowed to continue moving through illicit distribution networks instead of being intercepted.
The chairman contends that allowing fentanyl to remain in criminal circulation created an unacceptable risk that agents could lose control of the drugs and that the pills could ultimately be sold on American streets.
Fentanyl presents an unusually high public-safety risk because comparatively small quantities can be lethal, making the consequences of losing track of a shipment potentially far more severe than in traditional controlled-delivery operations involving other narcotics.
The committee’s investigation follows concerns raised within the DEA itself.
DEA Administrator Terrance Cole wrote to Assistant Inspector General Sean O’Neill requesting an independent review of agency operations in New Mexico that had allowed fentanyl shipments to continue into criminal networks.
That request brought additional scrutiny to whether investigative tactics used in the state adequately protected the public while agents pursued broader trafficking organizations.
Comer’s inquiry is focused not simply on individual field operations but on the policy decisions behind them.
He is seeking documents and communications concerning the Biden administration’s decision-making, including information related to the relaxation or abandonment of the earlier risk-mitigation protocols.
The chairman argues that procedures adopted in 2019 were specifically designed to recognize fentanyl’s lethality and prevent investigative strategies from creating an opportunity for the drug to reach unsuspecting users.
Under the practices Comer is examining, however, federal investigators allegedly permitted unusually large pill shipments to remain outside law enforcement custody as part of ongoing investigations.
The central question for the committee is how those decisions were approved, who authorized the departures from the earlier safeguards and whether officials adequately considered the danger posed if monitored fentanyl was lost or distributed.
Comer also alleges that the policy shift had real consequences in New Mexico, linking the weakened safeguards to additional fentanyl-related deaths in the state.
The investigation will examine whether those outcomes could have been prevented had agents continued operating under the stricter Trump-era protocols.
The committee has not limited its inquiry to front-line DEA personnel. By directing its document request to Blanche, Comer is seeking to establish how far responsibility for the policies extended within the Justice Department and DEA leadership during the Biden administration.
The investigation adds another congressional examination of Biden-era federal law enforcement policy, this time centered on whether efforts to pursue fentanyl trafficking organizations were conducted in a way that exposed the public to unnecessary danger.
At issue is the balance between allowing narcotics to remain under surveillance so investigators can identify higher-level members of trafficking organizations and the obligation to prevent a drug as lethal as fentanyl from escaping government control.
Comer’s position is that the earlier safeguards resolved that question by placing public safety first and requiring intervention before fentanyl could continue through criminal distribution channels.
The Oversight Committee is now seeking the internal records needed to determine why those standards were changed and how often “walking fentanyl” operations were permitted in New Mexico.
The inquiry will also examine the circumstances under which shipments containing tens of thousands of pills were not immediately seized and whether DEA officials were aware of the potential consequences when those operations were authorized.
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