New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is demanding the federal authorities pay reparations after accusing the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) of permitting tens of millions of fentanyl capsules to flood her state throughout an undercover operation with out notifying state or native officers.
Calling the alleged operation “essentially the most derelict, despicable act in my lengthy profession,” Lujan Grisham mentioned the fallout has pressured New Mexico to pour greater than $1.5 billion into regulation enforcement, behavioral well being, dependancy therapy and different public security initiatives whereas battling overdose deaths and widespread dependancy.
“The DEA stood silently by and watched hundreds of fentanyl capsules get distributed with no arrests, no proof, no discover that we all know of wherever else,” Lujan Grisham mentioned throughout a Monday information convention. “Somebody should pay for the injury to this state, the general public security dangers that will likely be shared by everybody right here for a decade.”
Lujan Grisham mentioned she needs the federal authorities to reimburse New Mexico for the cash it has spent combating the fentanyl epidemic, together with regulation enforcement operations, behavioral well being companies, dependancy therapy, overdose prevention and different public security initiatives.
She additionally known as on Congress to ban related DEA operations sooner or later, require the federal authorities to totally fund the prices imposed on states by such operations and maintain the officers concerned personally accountable.
“I’ve had to do that since 2019 thrice,” Lujan Grisham mentioned. “We’re right here once more, and this one, in truth, I feel is essentially the most devastating.”
The Democratic governor in contrast the controversy to earlier federal failures she mentioned harmed New Mexico, together with the federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the U.S. Forest Service’s prescribed burns that sparked the state’s largest wildfire. She famous the wildfire finally resulted in a multibillion-dollar federal legal responsibility settlement, arguing the DEA operation ought to result in related accountability.
Lujan Grisham mentioned her administration repeatedly requested each the Biden and Trump administrations for extra federal assets to fight New Mexico’s escalating fentanyl disaster, together with extra DEA brokers and coordinated enforcement efforts, however these requests went unanswered.
“Everyone behind me and the Workplace of the Governor have been asking each administrations… to do extra about public security within the state of New Mexico,” she mentioned, including that her administration held a number of conferences, despatched a number of letters and requested extra assets and brokers, but “it’s been remarkably silent.”
Lujan Grisham additionally urged lawmakers to require federal businesses to inform state and native officers earlier than conducting related operations, restore roughly $25 million in federal behavioral well being and public security funding she mentioned has been minimize and enact laws stopping related DEA techniques from getting used sooner or later.
Her remarks got here days after New Mexico Lawyer Normal Raúl Torrez introduced a legal investigation into allegations that the DEA knowingly allowed a whole lot of hundreds of fentanyl capsules to succeed in New Mexico communities whereas brokers pursued bigger legal investigations.
The Related Press beforehand reported that DEA brokers repeatedly monitored, however didn’t seize, giant fentanyl shipments between 2023 and 2025 whereas trying to construct broader legal instances.
Torrez mentioned the investigation will look at potential authorized cures, together with legal prosecution, civil litigation and structural reforms meant to forestall related conduct by DEA brokers sooner or later.
“The households who’ve misplaced youngsters, siblings, and fogeys to fentanyl deserve the reality about what the federal authorities knew and what it did not do,” Torrez mentioned in a press release.
“If the DEA stood by whereas poison flooded our communities, that isn’t a bureaucratic failure,” he continued. “It’s a betrayal of the individuals it was sworn to guard.”
Torrez mentioned his workplace “will pursue each authorized avenue out there to carry the accountable events accountable and make sure this by no means occurs once more.”
On Monday, Lujan Grisham echoed Torrez’s name for accountability, saying those that permitted or oversaw the operation ought to face penalties.
“I need the individuals who knew this distribution was occurring with out notifying anybody and permitting it to happen again and again held accountable,” Lujan Grisham mentioned. “My wager is lots of these persons are nonetheless in that DEA workplace.”
“I’m so offended. That is an outrage,” she added. “They need to be accountable for the size of time it’s going to take us to fight the scourge of dependancy and fentanyl overdose deaths.”
Fox Information Digital has reached out to the DEA for touch upon the matter.
