New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, wants answers and reparations in civil damages after a report exposed that Drug Enforcement Administration agents allowed fentanyl to flood her state between 2023 and 2025.
“It is the most derelict, despicable act in my long career,” Lujan Gisham said on Monday. “The DEA stood silently by and watched thousands of fentanyl pills get distributed with no arrests, no effort, no notice that we know of to anywhere else.”
“Someone must pay,” the governor added.
Lujan Grisham’s frustrations began during the Biden administration, even though the governor has a history of opposing President Donald Trump’s efforts to secure the border.
“I have spent years working across two administrations — writing letters, traveling to Washington, meeting directly with President Joe Biden and his cabinet, pushing for accountability, asking for more federal agents to be deployed to New Mexico to help fight this crisis,” Lujan Grisham stressed in a press release.
It’d help if Lujan Grisham worked with Trump to secure her border.
In 2019, Lujan Grisham withdrew the National Guard from the border. She refused to believe the “federal contention that there exists an overwhelming national security crisis at the southern border.”
In May, the DOJ filed a complaint against New Mexico officials over House Bill 9, accusing the state of infringing on federal immigration enforcement authority:
Through HB9, the State of New Mexico is trying to abolish decades of long-standing, voluntary partnerships between local governments and federal authorities that are essential for enforcing immigration laws and keeping the federal immigration system running as Congress intended. Both HB9 and the SCPO seek to block federal agents from using any local government property to carry out their work. Additionally, by unlawfully requiring private businesses to tip off illegal aliens about immigration enforcement activities, the SCPO attempts to harbor and shield illegal aliens from detection by federal immigration authorities and poses an obstacle to the enforcement of federal immigration law.
Lujan Grisham is also Texas’s only neighbor who did not respond to Gov. Greg Abbott’s calls for help securing the border.
Besides not helping secure the border, Lujan Grisham’s outrage stems from an AP report revealing that the DEA allowed thousands of fentanyl pills to enter New Mexico between 2023 and 2025. Three current and former DEA agents relayed the information to the AP, which also reviewed records:
DEA agents repeatedly monitored shipments of fentanyl pills — but did not seize them — as federal prosecutors sought to bring bigger criminal cases against traffickers of a synthetic opioid that the White House last year designated a “ weapon of mass destruction.”—Alex Uballez, who served as U.S. attorney in New Mexico from May 2022 until February 2025, said authorities at times allowed drug shipments to go unseized as part of a broader effort to gather intelligence and build cases against major drug traffickers. He said the approach reflected his office’s limited resources and his belief that prosecuting larger organizations can have a bigger impact than interdicting every suspected drug transaction.Last year, the DEA recorded the largest fentanyl bust in its history in Albuquerque.“The bigger fish are worth catching,” Uballez said, “and that will save more lives.”
The DEA told the AP that “the investigative decisions at issue were lawful, reasonable under the circumstances and consistent with Department guidance.”
Yeah, because we have never ever seen anything awful happen due to these schemes, right? You know, like Operation Fast & Furious.
Lawful or not…just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
Records showed the AP that DEA agents kept “such detailed intelligence about drug deliveries that agents were able to tally precise pill counts.”
Lujan Grisham also wants assurances that the DEA won’t continue to use risky operations that could jeopardize people.
The DEA asked the DOJ’s Office of the Inspector General to investigate these claims.
DEA Administrator Tom Cole believes agents did everything by the book and that no one should interpret his request as a lack of confidence in any DEA personnel.
“If DEA’s actions are confirmed to have been appropriate, such a review will strengthen public confidence in the agency and in the professionalism of its workforce,” Cole wrote. “If opportunities for improvement are identified, DEA is committed to implementing appropriate corrective actions and incorporating lessons learned into future operations.”
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez already launched a criminal investigation into the operation.
“New Mexico already ranks among the states hardest hit by fentanyl overdose deaths,” Torrez said. “And the families who have lost children, siblings and parents to this crisis deserve a full accounting of what the federal government knew, what it did and what it failed to do.”
The DOJ also welcomed any partnership with New Mexico officials.
“Should that review identify areas of improvement, the DEA will of course implement changes to better their practices,” stated the DOJ. “We welcome a partnership with Governor Lujan Grisham, as well as New Mexico state and local leaders, to fight the scourge of fentanyl and keep her constituents safe.”
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