New Mexico AG sues Justice Department for records on DEA fentanyl operations
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez sued the U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday, August 27, 2026, asking a federal judge to compel records about allegations that DEA agents and federal prosecutors allowed fentanyl shipments to proceed during investigations in the state.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico. It names the Justice Department and U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche in his official capacity.
New Mexico is not asking the court for damages or a final ruling on whether DEA personnel broke the law. The immediate dispute is over federal records that state investigators say they need to evaluate allegations involving fentanyl investigations in New Mexico.
What New Mexico is asking for
The New Mexico Department of Justice sent the federal department a formal records request on July 1. The request sought 15 categories of material concerning DEA fentanyl-seizure policies and practices, including internal policies and protocols, investigative files and reports, communications, records related to whistleblower disclosures and personnel matters, and information about the public-health consequences of alleged non-seizure practices.
According to the complaint, the Justice Department denied the request on July 29, saying the state had not identified a federal or state court action and had not explained how the requested information was relevant to a proceeding. New Mexico says it responded on August 3 with additional information and asked for production on a rolling basis, beginning August 17. The complaint says the department did not provide the records or a further response.
The state argues that the denial and subsequent lack of response were arbitrary, unlawful and contrary to the Administrative Procedure Act. New Mexico is asking the court to declare the denials unlawful, set them aside and order the Justice Department to produce the requested records. Alternatively, the state wants the department to reconsider the request under its regulations governing federal records demands by state law-enforcement agencies.
What the complaint alleges
The underlying allegations involve a practice described as “fentanyl walking.” In the state’s description, investigators monitor or allow drug shipments to continue while building a larger case against higher-level members of a trafficking organization.
The complaint alleges that the practice occurred in New Mexico between 2022 and 2025 and that hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills may have entered communities while federal agents pursued larger targets. Those claims are based on the state’s investigation, whistleblower accounts and prior reporting. They have not been established by a court.
One example concerns a June 2023 delivery at a mobile home park in southwest Albuquerque. The complaint cites a whistleblower allegation that DEA agents observed a shipment believed to contain up to 74,000 fentanyl pills but did not stop it. The Associated Press separately reported that federal records described the delivery and that prosecutors later confirmed the pill count in a court filing.
AP also reported that current and former DEA personnel said agents monitored major shipments in New Mexico without seizing them. The DEA has rejected that characterization, saying the investigations involved court-authorized wiretaps, real-time surveillance, intelligence gathering and efforts to target larger trafficking organizations.
Federal response and earlier review
The DEA said in a statement reported by AP that the investigative decisions at issue were lawful, reasonable under the circumstances and consistent with Justice Department guidance. The agency also said public descriptions suggesting that it knowingly permitted fentanyl to reach communities were false and mischaracterized the facts.
The complaint says the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility completed a 2024 investigation into whistleblower Special Agent David Howell’s disclosures. AP reported that the earlier review found the decisions reasonable and did not find a specific danger to public health. The state is seeking the underlying records because it says it cannot independently evaluate the basis for that conclusion.
The Justice Department had not provided a separate response to the lawsuit in the sources reviewed for this article.
Why the dispute matters in New Mexico
The records fight comes as New Mexico continues to face a serious overdose crisis. The complaint cites federal provisional data showing at least 1,043 New Mexicans died of a drug overdose in the 12 months ending in March 2026, a 26.6% increase from the comparable period. The complaint says reported overdose deaths nationally fell by more than 13% during that period.
A separate New Mexico Department of Justice announcement described the increase during the period under investigation as 21%, compared with a 14% national decline. Those figures come from different presentations or time frames and should not be merged. Neither set of figures, by itself, establishes that federal investigative decisions caused overdose deaths.
The complaint also says New Mexico has spent more than $843 million building and expanding its behavioral-health response. That is a figure attributed to the complaint, not a new expenditure authorized by the lawsuit and not a damages claim against the federal government.
New Mexico says the records could help investigators determine what federal agents and prosecutors knew, which policies applied, who approved decisions not to seize drugs and whether state law was violated. The complaint says the state investigation could lead to criminal prosecutions or civil remedies if warranted. No such finding has been made.
Separate federal oversight review
The Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General announced a separate review on August 17, 2026. It is examining department-wide, Criminal Division and DEA policies, protocols, guidance, instructions and training for investigations involving fentanyl when federal investigators know that the drug may be transported, distributed or stored at a specific location.
The review will consider how officials assess and mitigate risks, including whether to interdict shipments, who makes or approves those decisions, how disagreements are handled, whether decisions are documented and whether agencies conduct after-action reviews. The inspector general said the review will focus primarily on the previous two years but may consider earlier events in New Mexico for context.
The review is preliminary and has produced no findings. The inspector general’s office said it will issue a public report when the review is complete.
What happens next
The Justice Department will respond to the federal lawsuit, and the court will determine how to handle New Mexico’s challenge to the records denial. The court could order production, require the department to reconsider the request or reject the state’s claims.
At this stage, no merits ruling has determined whether the alleged fentanyl-walking practices violated federal policy, state law or residents’ rights. The lawsuit, the state investigation and the inspector general review are separate proceedings. The next major developments are likely to be the Justice Department’s response, court action on the records request and any eventual findings from the inspector general.
Sources
- Filed federal complaint in State of New Mexico v. U.S. Department of Justice
- Associated Press investigation on unseized fentanyl shipments
- DOJ Office of Inspector General review announcement
Look for updates to this story
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