Biden's DOJ scolded DEA agents who pulled 7,000 fentanyl pills from under a child's seat.
Three whistleblowers have gone on record about what the Biden DOJ was doing with fentanyl in Albuquerque.
The US Attorney's Office called those agents in – and what happened next cost a 19-year veteran his career.
How the Biden-Era DEA Fentanyl Scandal Makes Fast and Furious Look Small
Obama's DOJ ran Fast and Furious with guns. Biden's DOJ ran it with fentanyl.
Obama's team let roughly 2,000 weapons walk to Mexican cartels and lost track of most of them.
Those guns turned up at crime scenes across Mexico and the United States – including the murder scene of US Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.
Biden's team studied that disgrace and decided to repeat it with a drug that kills in milligrams.
The DEA had clear protocols since 2019: if you have probable cause and fentanyl is present, you seize it.
Trump designated fentanyl a weapon of mass destruction.
One kilogram – less than two and a half pounds – carries enough fentanyl to kill 500,000 people.
In 2024, Biden's DOJ quietly rewrote those protocols to give agents "more discretion" in whether to seize fentanyl shipments.
The Biden DOJ was willing to let fentanyl hit the streets to try to take down big fish.
David Howell Found 7000 Fentanyl Pills Under a Child and Paid With His Career
DEA Special Agent David Howell – a 19-year veteran – was tracking a suspect from the air in Albuquerque in 2023.
When the suspect picked up a child, Howell's team pulled the car over, secured the child, and detained the suspect.
"We took his drugs. We took his gun," Howell said. "It was in a little compartment underneath the seat that the child was sitting on."
Between 6,000 and 7,000 fentanyl pills were in that vehicle.
Howell expected a commendation – instead, the US Attorney's Office for the District of New Mexico called the agents in and chastised them.
"They were perfectly willing to allow that fentanyl to go to the house with the kid," Howell said.
Biden's DOJ barred Howell from testifying in any federal court case – supervisors feared he would tell the truth about fentanyl walking under cross-examination – then stripped him of his law enforcement duties and moved him to a desk.
A veteran agent, sidelined for pulling a drug trafficker's gun out from under a child.
Three DEA Whistleblowers Exposed the Fentanyl Walking Scandal and Got Destroyed
Howell filed his complaint in 2023 – DEA management ignored it for three years.
A second whistleblower – Kevin Small, a 31-year DEA veteran – backed him up and was driven out entirely, forced to resign after DEA supervisors cut off his work.
A third whistleblower, name redacted, detailed a drug courier who made repeated fentanyl runs from Phoenix to Albuquerque while agents watched without making a single arrest.
In one operation alone, agents permitted the delivery of at least 1.8 million fentanyl pills.
The DEA's official response: those decisions were "lawful, reasonable under the circumstances."
Sen. Bernie Moreno didn't accept that. "A scandal of the highest order," he wrote on X. "How many thousands of American lives were lost because the Biden DEA refused to act?"
House Oversight Chairman James Comer called Biden's policies "unconscionable" and demanded records from the DOJ.
The DOJ Inspector General is now conducting a nationwide review to determine whether fentanyl walking happened beyond Albuquerque.
Officials in the Albuquerque area declared a state of emergency over fentanyl overdoses.
The Biden administration's answer to that emergency was to quietly rewrite the seizure protocols in 2024 and give agents written permission to let the drugs move.
Every agent who went on record about it ended up at a desk or out the door.
David Howell told his managers for three years that people were getting killed – they pulled him from his law enforcement duties and locked him out of the courtroom.
The child who rode home safe that day in Albuquerque – above 7,000 fentanyl pills, in a compartment under the seat – had no idea the agent who stopped that car was about to lose everything for doing it.
Sources:
- Fred Lucas, "'We Walk Fentanyl': 3rd Whistleblower Emerges in DOJ Probe of Biden-Era DEA Scandal," The Daily Signal, August 4, 2026.
- "Death Knell: Biden DOJ Retaliated Against DEA Agent Who Tried to Stop Flood of Fentanyl, Attorney Says," The Daily Signal, July 9, 2026.
- Empower Oversight, "DEA Whistleblower: Feds Allowed Millions of Fentanyl Pills to Hit New Mexico Streets, Violating Federal Policy," Press Release, June 2026.
- James Comer, Letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche requesting DEA fentanyl walking records, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, October 2026.
- "DEA Whistleblower Says Agency Allowed Millions of Fentanyl Pills on the Streets," CBS News, October 29, 2026.