Federal Inspector to Review DEA's Tactic of Allowing Fentanyl on the Streets
· Telemundo McAllen (KTLM)
The internal oversight body of the U.S. Department of Justice announced on Monday a review of a controversial tactic in which federal law enforcement allowed fentanyl to reach the streets in order to build stronger cases against drug traffickers. The review will examine government policies and investigations involving wiretaps in which the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) may have known about fentanyl deliveries before they occurred but chose not to act in order to avoid jeopardizing larger prosecutions. Agents and former agents indicated that this investigative strategy—known as allowing drugs to 'walk'—amounts to a gamble with public safety and may have violated Department of Justice guidelines aimed at protecting communities from a synthetic opioid that the White House designated last year as a 'weapon of mass destruction.' The review comes less than two months after an Associated Press investigation found that DEA agents repeatedly tracked—yet did not seize—significant shipments of fentanyl in New Mexico between 2023 and 2025. This announcement was made in a press release from the Department of Justice's Inspector General, Don Berthiaume, marking one of his first official actions after taking office on Friday.
AI summary · Source: Telemundo McAllen (KTLM) →
