Donald J.Trump highlights whistleblower claim that Biden DEA let 1 million fentanyl pills reach streets

A DEA agent alleges the agency and federal prosecutors in New Mexico allowed massive fentanyl shipments to flow unchecked during the Biden era, drawing comparisons to Operation Fast and Furious.

NEW MEXICO — Donald J.Trump highlighted a whistleblower claim that the Biden-era DEA allowed more than 1 million fentanyl pills to reach American streets by mentioning the source (see justthenews) on a Truth Social post on June 22, 2026 at 10:40 PM EST.

Here is the full post (see truthsocial): “Fast and Furious 2.0?’ Biden DEA let 1M fentanyl pills flow to streets, whistleblower lawyer says: https://justthenews.com/government/federal-agencies/cover-dea-whistleblowers-lawyer-says-client-silenced-more-1m-pills”

DEA Special Agent David Howell, a 14-year veteran, filed a whistleblower complaint in late 2023 with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel. He disclosed that the DEA and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Mexico deliberately chose not to seize large shipments of fentanyl, including deliveries of 150,000 and 50,000 pills, in an effort to build cases against major drug traffickers (see justthenews).

“We poisoned our community to make cases,” Howell said. “Through our own willful blindness, we get to say, “We don’t really know what happened to the drugs.” But we 100% got people killed” (see justthenews).

Attorney Tristan Leavitt, president of Empower Oversight and Howell’s legal representative, compared the allegations to the Obama-era Operation Fast and Furious scandal. That operation allowed semiautomatic weapons to flow across the southern border to drug cartels and drew widespread congressional scrutiny (see wikipedia.org). Leavitt said the Justice Department adopted a protocol in 2019 requiring agents to interdict fentanyl discovered during wiretap operations, but the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Albuquerque ignored that guidance (see justthenews).

The U.S. Office of Special Counsel reviewed Howell’s complaint and found “a substantial likelihood of wrongdoing,” then asked the Justice Department to investigate. Howell was told after his first pill seizure that he could no longer testify in any cases, sidelining him from active enforcement duties (see justthenews).

Leavitt told Just the News that tracking the human toll of the operation is difficult because, unlike the guns in Fast and Furious, fentanyl pills carry no serial numbers. He noted that New Mexico recorded higher fentanyl overdose rates than any other state during the two-year span of the operation (see justthenews).

The “Fast and Furious 2.0” label references the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives operation from 2009 to 2011, which became a major political scandal after weapons linked to the program were found at crime scenes on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border (see wikipedia.org).

Donald J.Trump designated fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction in a December 2025 executive order. His administration also oversaw the largest seizure of fentanyl pills in DEA history in Albuquerque after he returned to office (see justthenews).

Leavitt said he hopes parallel congressional and DOJ Inspector General investigations will determine how many people the operation harmed and how to prevent a repeat (see justthenews).

In the last 30 days, 2 of 643 Trump posts addressed the topic of domestic security and crime, including 1 on the sub-topic of crime in cities.

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Note: Table generated by NewsFindr on June 22, 2026 at 10:51 PM EST

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