The Justice Department's watchdog is investigating how widely Drug Enforcement Administration agents allowed fentanyl shipments to reach U.S. streets rather than seizing them, a controversial tactic intended to protect larger investigations and identify higher-level drug traffickers.
The review follows an Associated Press investigation that found DEA agents in New Mexico repeatedly knew about fentanyl shipments but did not intercept them, including one delivery involving 74,000 pills that agents monitored as it reached an Albuquerque mobile home park.
