Prosecutions for July 2025
Referring Agency: Drug Enforcement Administration
The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during July 2025 the government reported 559 new prosecutions for these matters. Those cases were referred by the Drug Enforcement Administration. According to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), this number is down 18.8 percent over the previous month.
The comparisons of the number of defendants charged are based on case-by-case information obtained by TRAC under the Freedom of Information Act from the Executive Office for United States Attorneys (see Table 1).
When monthly 2025 prosecutions of this type are compared with those of the same period in the previous year, the number of filings was down (-8.8%). Prosecutions over the past year are still much lower than they were five years ago. Overall, the data show that prosecutions of this type are down 15.1 percent from levels reported in 2020.
Figure 1. Monthly Trends in Prosecutions
The decrease from the levels five years ago in prosecutions for these matters is shown more clearly in Figure 1. The vertical bars in Figure 1 represent the number of prosecutions of this type recorded on a month-to-month basis. Where a prosecution was initially filed in U.S. Magistrate Court and then transferred to the U.S. District Court, the magistrate filing date was used since this provides an earlier indicator of actual trends. The superimposed line on the bars plots the six-month moving average so that natural fluctuations are smoothed out. The one and five-year rates of change in Table 1 and in the sections that follow are all based upon this six-month moving average. To view trends year-by-year rather than month-by-month, see TRAC's annual report series for a broader picture.
Cases were classified by prosecutors into more specific types.
The largest number of prosecutions of these matters in July 2025 was for "Drugs-Drug Trafficking", accounting for 46.3 percent of prosecutions. Prosecutions were also filed for "Withheld by Govt from TRAC (FOIA challen" (33.8%), "Drugs-Organized Crime Task Force" (14.5%). See Figure 2.
Prosecutions in U.S. Magistrate Courts
Top Ranked Lead Charges
In July 2025, 121 defendants in cases for these matters were filed in U.S. Magistrate Courts. These courts handle less serious misdemeanor cases, including what are called "petty offenses." In addition, complaints are sometimes filed in the magistrate courts before an indictment or information is entered. In these cases, the matter starts in the magistrate courts and later moves to the district court where subsequent proceedings take place.
In the magistrate courts in July the most frequently cited lead charge was Title 21 U.S.C Section 841 involving "Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A". This was the lead charge for 47.1 percent of all magistrate filings in July.
Other frequently prosecuted lead charges include: "21 USC 846 - Attempt and conspiracy" (21.5%), "Other US Code Section" (5.8%).
Prosecutions in U.S. District Courts
In July 2025, 438 defendants in new cases for these matters were charged in the U.S. District Courts. In addition during July there were an additional 119 defendants whose cases moved from the magistrate courts to the U.S. district courts after an indictment or information was filed. The sections which follow cover both sets of cases and therefore cover all matters filed in district court during July.
Top Ranked Lead Charges
Table 2 shows the top lead charges recorded in the prosecutions of matters filed in U.S. District Court during July 2025 referred by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Lead Charge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago 21 USC 841 - Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A 203 1 1 1 More 21 USC 846 - Attempt and conspiracy 112 2 2 2 More 18 USC 922 - Firearms; Unlawful acts 13 4 4 3 More 18 USC 1962 - RICO - prohibited activities 10 5 28 - More 18 USC 1956 - Laundering of monetary instruments 2 6 6 6 More 46 USC 70506 - Penalties 2 6 5 9 More 08 USC 1326 - Reentry of deported alien 1 8 - 22 More 18 USC 1512 - Tampering with a witness, victim, or an informant 1 8 28 22 More 18 USC 1957 - Monetary transactions w/property from unlawful act 1 8 28 - More 21 USC 331 - Fed Food, Drug & Cosmetics Act - Prohibited acts 1 8 15 - More 21 USC 843 - Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts C 1 8 11 10 More 21 USC 952 - Importation of controlled substances 1 8 9 5 More 31 USC 5332 - Bulk Cash Smuggling into or out of the United States 1 8 28 17 More Table 2. Top Charges Filed
"Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A" (Title 21 U.S.C Section 841) was the most frequent recorded lead charge. "Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A" (Title 21 U.S.C Section 841) was ranked 1 a year ago, while it was ranked 1 five years ago.
Ranked 2nd in frequency was the lead charge "Attempt and conspiracy" under Title 21 U.S.C Section 846. "Attempt and conspiracy" under Title 21 U.S.C Section 846 was ranked 2 a year ago, while it was ranked 2 five years ago.
Ranked 3rd was "Other US Code Section" under Title U.S.C Section. "Other US Code Section" under Title U.S.C Section was ranked 3 a year ago, while it was ranked 4 five years ago.
Among these top ten lead charges, the one showing the greatest increase in prosecutions — up 2200 percent — compared to one year ago was Title 18 U.S.C Section 1962 that involves " RICO - prohibited activities ". Compared to five years ago, the largest increase — 300 percent — was registered for prosecutions under " Reentry of deported alien " (Title 8 U.S.C Section 1326 ).
Again among the top ten lead charges, the one showing the sharpest decline in prosecutions compared to one year ago — down 83.3 percent — was " Fed Food, Drug & Cosmetics Act - Prohibited acts " (Title 21 U.S.C Section 331 ). Compared to five years ago, the most significant decline in prosecutions — 85.4 percent — was for filings where the lead charge was " Importation of controlled substances " (Title 21 U.S.C Section 952 ).
Top Ranked Judicial Districts
In July 2025 the Justice Department's case-by-case records show that the government brought 199.6 prosecutions for every ten million people in the United States.
Understandably, there is great variation in the per capita number of prosecutions that are filed in each of the nation's ninety-four federal judicial districts.
The districts registering the largest number of prosecutions per capita for these matters last month are shown in Table 3. Districts must have at least 5 prosecutions to receive a ranking.
Judicial District Percapita Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago Ala, M 2,408 24 1 27 63 More Miss, N 1,540 14 2 38 90 More Okla, N 1,300 12 3 14 75 More S Dakota 1,192 9 4 40 33 More Maine 774 9 5 80 77 More Mo, E 700 17 6 7 12 More N Mexico 681 12 7 25 8 More Ark, W 591 7 8 45 66 More Ken, E 590 11 9 16 22 More Ark, E 583 8 10 19 26 More Table 3. Top 10 Districts (per ten million people)
The Middle District of Alabama (Montgomery) — with 2408 prosecutions as compared with 199.6 prosecutions per ten million population in the United States — was the most active during July 2025.
The Northern District of Mississippi (Oxford) ranked 2nd.
Northern District of Oklahoma (Tulsa) is now ranking 3rd.
Recent entrants to the top 10 list were Northern District of Oklahoma (Tulsa), now ranked 3rd , and Eastern District of Kentucky (Lexington) at 9th In the same order, these districts ranked 14th and 16th one year ago and 75th and 22nd five years ago.
The federal judicial district which showed the greatest growth in the rate of prosecutions compared to one year ago — 75 percent — was Maine . Compared to five years ago, the district with the largest growth — 1900 percent — was Northern District of Mississippi (Oxford).
In the last year, the judicial District Court recording the largest drop in the rate of prosecutions — 50 percent — was Northern District of Mississippi (Oxford). But over the past five years, New Mexico showed the largest drop — 41.5 percent.
Top Ranked District Judges
At any one time, there are about 680 federal District Court judges working in the United States. The judges recorded with the largest number of new crime cases of this type during July 2025 are shown in Table 4.
Judge Count Rank Aycock, Sharion Miss, N 13 1 More Ranjan, J. Nicholas Penn, W 13 1 More Schultz, David T. Minnesota 12 3 More Alston, Rossie David, Jr. Virg, E 11 4 More Young, Richard L. Ind, S 7 5 More Torresen, Nancy Maine 7 5 More Ross, John Andrew Mo, E 6 7 More Nugent, Donald C. Ohio, N 6 7 More Velez-Rive, Camille L. Puer Rico 6 7 More Brown, Ada Elene Texas, N 6 7 More Counts, Walter David, III Texas, W 6 7 More Table 4. Top Ten Judges
A total of 3 out of the "top ten" judges were in districts which were in the top ten with the largest number of filings per capita, while the remaining 8 judges were from other districts. (Because of ties, there were a total of 11 judges in the "top ten" rankings.)
Judges Sharion Aycock in the Northern District of Mississippi (Oxford) and J. Nicholas Ranjan in the Western District of Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh) ranked 1st with 13 defendants in cases.
Judge David T. Schultz in the District of Minnesota ranked 3rd with 12 defendants in cases.
Report Generated: September 25, 2025
