New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said Monday that state officials could pursue billions of dollars in civil damages after revelations that U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents repeatedly allowed shipments of fentanyl to reach New Mexico streets as investigators sought to build bigger cases against traffickers.
“This is a stunning failure by the federal government,” Grisham told reporters at a news conference at the state medical examiner’s office in Albuquerque. She was joined by a host of state and local law enforcement officials demanding answers.
“It’s disgusting and despicable,” she said.
The governor said she would take her outrage “right to the White House and Congress” to seek assurances the DEA is no longer using the strategy in New Mexico — and that it is not being replicated elsewhere.
The civil damages pledge follows an Associated Press investigation that revealed DEA agents repeatedly allowed fentanyl shipments to reach communities as part of a strategy to build larger trafficking cases. MSI previously reported that the practice spanned years and involved hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills reaching the state, and that the DEA had asked the Justice Department’s watchdog to investigate whistleblower claims about the conduct.
Overdoses have surged in New Mexico even as fentanyl deaths declined in other states, Grisham said.