Empower Oversight today sent two letters to Department of Justice (DOJ) Assistant Inspector General Sean O’Neill, expanding its work on behalf of Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) whistleblower Special Agent (SA) David Howell and asking the Justice Department’s watchdog to open a new investigation into retaliation against a DEA contractor who supported him.
The letters concern Howell’s protected disclosures regarding the DEA’s failure to interdict numerous fentanyl shipments against agency protocols. The allegations became public in June through reporting by the Associated Press and the Albuquerque Journal, which described DEA agents in Albuquerque allowing large quantities of fentanyl to reach the streets during ongoing investigations. The reporting prompted new state and federal inquiries and public outcries from New Mexico’s governor and attorney general.
“As predicted by SA Howell, the public and New Mexico elected officials have been outraged by the number of pills the DEA allowed to walk,” Empower Oversight Tristan Leavitt said. “Nobody will ever know how many individuals lost their life because the agency ignored protocols and then changed them to try and cover their tracks, but we should be grateful for courageous whistleblowers coming forward to shed light on this deadly policy.”
In the new letter to the OIG, Leavitt follows up on his May 12, 2026, letter and lays out a detailed timeline of the underlying dispute between DEA agents and prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Mexico over the department’s Fentanyl Protocols.
Among the episodes described:
- An April 2023 traffic stop in which agents seized fentanyl and a firearm from a suspect on his way to pick up a child from school, after which an Assistant U.S. Attorney (AUSA) reportedly asked agents, “Why’d you do that?” and called the DEA’s seizure policy “ridiculous.”
- Instances in which tens of thousands of fentanyl pills under surveillance were reportedly allowed to reach the street without interdiction.
- A July 2023 arrest that led one supervisory AUSA to accuse Howell of acting as a “rogue” agent and to raise the possibility of barring him from long-term investigations.
- Howell’s subsequent protected disclosures to DEA leadership, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the DOJ Office of Inspector General, and the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC), and the eventual production of a DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility report that Empower Oversight has previously argued was flawed.
The letter also brings attention to the newly filed contractor retaliation claim, outlined in a separate letter asking for an investigation, regarding Kevin Small, a Senior Financial Investigator working as a contractor in the DEA’s Albuquerque District Office.
Small, a 31-year DEA veteran who returned to the agency as a contractor after retiring as a Special Agent, told colleagues he believed the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico had treated SA Howell unfairly after Howell raised concerns in 2023 about large quantities of fentanyl being allowed onto the streets during DEA investigations.
The letter states that after the AP and Albuquerque Journal stories ran, Assistant Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey Armijo confronted Small, telling him, “If you support David Howell, we’re through.” He then imposed strict new work rules on Small, blocked him from further assignments, and reversed a previously approved plan to bring on a second part-time contractor. Facing what the letter describes as sustained hostility, Small submitted his resignation, effective August 31, 2026.
Empower Oversight is also asking for an investigation into the retaliation suffered by Small.
To see the 2019 fentanyl protocols, click here.
To see the 2024 fentanyl protocols, click here.
To see the May 12, 2026, letter to the DOJ OIG, click here.
To see the May 12, 2026, letter to Congress, click here.
To see the June 5, 2026, letter to Acting DOJ Deputy Attorney General, click here.
To see the July 15, 2026, letter to DOJ OIG on new information regarding Howell, click here.
To see the July 15, 2026, letter to DOJ OIG on Kevin Small retaliation, click here.
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