Article about DEA allowing Fentanyl to stay on the street, claiming it was needed for catching higher-up offenders

[abefourth]

What a reporter found when uncovering why federal agents allowed a deadly drug to hit the streets

Jim Mustian reported and co-wrote an Associated Press story that revealed the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration permitted hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills to be distributed in New Mexico as ...

www.yahoo.com

Jim Mustian reported and co-wrote an Associated Press story that revealed the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration permitted hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills to be distributed in New Mexico as part of an effort to build bigger federal prosecutions.

Mustian, along with AP journalist Joshua Goodman, reviewed hundreds of internal DEA records and interviewed current and former agents, including a whistleblower who claims his agency gambled with public safety and violated U.S. Justice Department rules about seizing the dangerous synthetic opioid.''

[David] Howell, a 19-year veteran of DEA, filed a formal whistleblower in late 2023 with the Office of Special Counsel, a government agency that protects whistleblowers. He submitted DEA reports, emails and text messages, including one in which colleagues discussed a 100,000-pill transaction they witnessed but chose not to stop.