On August 27, 2026, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez sued U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for access to records necessary for the New Mexico Department of Justice’s (NMDOJ) investigation into allegations that DEA agents knowingly allowed large quantities of fentanyl to be distributed in New Mexico. 

New Mexico’s overdose death rate has ranked among the worst in the nation for more than two decades, with fentanyl driving 70% of the deaths since 2016. Fentanyl-fueled overdose deaths had reached such proportions that the state declared a public health emergency in September 2023, and the New Mexico Department of Health issued a separate Health Alert Network advisory in 2026. In April 2025 the U.S. DOJ touted what it called the largest fentanyl bust in DEA history: agents in Albuquerque seized 2.7 million fentanyl pills, enough, DEA said, to kill most of the people in New Mexico.  

New Mexico’s Department of Justice (NMDOJ) began its investigation into the DEA’s actions after a DEA whistleblower came forward with credible information that agency personnel had knowingly allowed large quantities of fentanyl to be distributed in New Mexico. Federal agents and prosecutors allegedly engaged in a practice known as “fentanyl walking,” allowing fentanyl shipments to proceed as part of investigations aimed at identifying higher-level drug traffickers, potentially in violation of federal protocols. 

The NMDOJ formally requested related records from the U.S. Department of Justice in July 2026, including internal policies, investigative files, communications, records related to whistleblower disclosures, and information concerning the public-health consequences of the alleged practices. The federal government denied the request and, after the NMDOJ responded to the stated objections and provided additional information, failed to produce the requested records or provide any further response. 

New Mexico’s legal complaint alleges that during the period under investigation, the state experienced a 21-percent increase in overdose deaths while overdose deaths nationally declined by 14 percent. The lawsuit argues that the federal government’s refusal to provide the records is unlawful under the Administrative Procedure Act and interferes with New Mexico’s sovereign authority to investigate potential violations of state law. 

New Mexico’s attorney general is asking the federal court to order the U.S. Department of Justice to produce the requested records or, at minimum, reconsider its denial in accordance with federal regulations governing requests for records by state law enforcement agencies. 

Fentanyl is devasting families across New Mexico, and we deserve to know the truth about the DEA’s practice of allowing that poison to flow into our communities. Rather than come clean with the public, the United States Department of Justice is once again stonewalling our efforts to get to the bottom of this unconscionable practice, to determine who is responsible for endangering our families and to hold those responsible to account.