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'We poisoned our community': 4 reactions to DEA allowing fentanyl pills to hit the streets

By Samantha Kamman, Christian Post Reporter

1. David Howell

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent David Howell filed a whistleblower complaint in 2023 after raising concerns about agents monitoring fentanyl shipments without seizing them.

“We poisoned our community to make cases,” Howell told The Associated Press in a series of interviews. “Through our own willful blindness, we get to say, ‘We don’t really know what happened to the drugs.’ But we 100 percent got people killed.”

According to a 66-page report reviewed by the AP, agents closely monitored a June 2023 drug delivery at a mobile home park in Albuquerque, where traffickers delivered 74,000 pills.

Investigators had watched the same distribution ring deliver a spare tire hiding another suspected fentanyl shipment, but it was also not seized, according to the AP. 

“We did nothing but sit back and watch,” Howell stated. 

Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: samantha.kamman@christianpost.com. Follow her on Twitter: @Samantha_Kamman

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