ALBUQUERQUE — Roughly 83,000 New Mexicans suffered from an opioid use disorder in 2024 — up from 44,000 in 2020, according to state Health Secretary Gina DeBlassie.
Overdose-related deaths also have spiked, with preliminary data showing they have increased by 24% so far this year, DeBlassie said at a news conference Monday in Albuquerque.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham had gathered with some of New Mexico’s top state and local government officials and law enforcement leaders to express outrage, saying the federal government must shoulder much of the blame. They cited recent reports that U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents allowed hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills to hit the streets of New Mexico as they sought to catch high-level dealers.
“It is the most derelict, despicable act in my long career,” Lujan Grisham said, comparing the DEA’s reported actions to other major failures of the federal government, such as the 2022 Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire, which was caused by prescribed federal burns.
Gabriela Campos
She and other officials — speaking at the headquarters of the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator, where they said many victims of fentanyl overdoses had been examined — said they plan to pursue all possible legal action to address the damage the dangerous drug has wrought on New Mexicans, estimating the federal government owes the state upwards of hundreds of millions of dollars.
“This is an outrage,” Lujan Grisham said, “and we’re going to protect the rest of the United States from this kind of foul, ‘I need a big case’ effort.”
‘Driver of crime’
A report published by The Associated Press based on records and interviews with current and former DEA agents showed the agency monitored, but did not seize, hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills from 2023 to 2025 in an apparent effort to build cases against larger traffickers.
The reports have led to public outcry. Last week, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez launched a formal investigation into the federal government’s actions, which he said would examine legal steps the state could take.
Members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation also sent a letter to the DEA’s head, demanding detailed information on the agency’s handling of fentanyl trafficking investigations.
A spokesperson for the DEA on Monday again referred The New Mexican to a statement released by Administrator Terry Cole on Thursday calling for the U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General to conduct an independent review of the agency’s actions.
“I made this request because allegations involving a federal law enforcement agency should be examined independently, thoroughly, and based on the complete factual record — not debated through speculation or incomplete information,” Cole wrote in the statement.
He added, “If the review confirms that DEA personnel acted appropriately, it will provide an independent assessment that reinforces confidence in the professionalism of this agency and its workforce. If improvements are identified, DEA will implement them.”
Gabriela Campos
Officials on Monday highlighted the uphill battle that fentanyl and addiction has presented to law enforcement agencies, local governments, the state Legislature and New Mexico agencies. The federal government’s actions have only made that battle more difficult, they said.
“It is the driver of crime; it is the driver of homelessness; it is the reinforcer of poverty; it is the driver of mental illness; it is the driver of our healthcare challenges,” Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller said of fentanyl. “… It is the number one problem facing our city, and that’s why to hear that the federal government was actually perpetuating this, making it worse, and it was on purpose, is just so devastating.”
‘Systemic failure’
Republicans have sought to place the blame on former President Joe Biden’s administration, as well as on Lujan Grisham’s.
“Soft on crime policies. Sanctuary policies. An open border under the Biden administration. And in Santa Fe, Democrats repeatedly blocking tougher penalties for fentanyl traffickers, stronger sentences for repeat offenders, and reforms to hold violent criminals accountable,” state House Republicans said in a statement posted on social media Thursday. “That created the perfect storm.”
However, officials at the news conference pushed back against efforts to blame the reported flood of fentanyl into New Mexico on one presidential administration or another.
“I don’t care who it was — Biden, Trump, whoever — it is a systemic failure,” said state House Speaker Javier Martínez, an Albuquerque Democrat.
The type of legal actions New Mexico will be able to take against the federal government is not yet clear.
In a letter sent to Lujan Grisham promising to launch an investigation into the federal government and to examine all possible legal remedies, Torrez noted the U.S. Constitution provides significant protections to federal employees acting within the scope of their authority.
Gabriela Campos
While those protections would not preclude state prosecution of federal officers, Torrez wrote it “creates significant legal barriers that must be carefully evaluated before proceeding.”
“We will do that evaluation rigorously and honestly,” he added.
Still, Lujan Grisham said the state would pursue all legal courses of action. Her administration has dug through federal policies, including those of the DEA, and has found no justification for the agency’s reported actions, she said.
“We see no evidence that this is a protocol that you should or could be using. That means that their immunity could be pierced because they were outside of the course of reasonable efforts based on their responsibilities, so we’re going to look there,” she said.
Lujan Grisham and Keller also said New Mexico could pursue a lawsuit against the federal government. They argued the amount of funding policymakers have thrown at the problem in recent years — from expanding behavioral health services, to public safety spending — could allow the state to put a dollar figure on the damage that fentanyl allowed into New Mexico communities by federal agents.
“I bet we could show damages in the hundreds of millions of dollars here, if not more,” Lujan Grisham said.
