DEA Administrator Anne Milgram speaks during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, Friday, April 14, 2023. The Justice Department has charged 28 members of Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa cartel, including sons of notorious drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, in a sprawling fentanyl-trafficking investigation. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal watchdog is investigating whether the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration under chief Anne Milgram improperly awarded millions of dollars in no-bid contracts to hire her past associates. That’s according to people familiar with the probe who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Among the contract spending under scrutiny by the Justice Department’s Inspector General is $4.7 million to hire people Milgram knew from her days as New Jersey’s attorney general and as a New York University law professor – at costs exceeding pay for government officials. DEA declined to comment specifically but said in a statement it has acted to “set a new vision.”