Prosecutions for March 2025
Referring Agency: Drug Enforcement Administration
The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during March 2025 the government reported 698 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 up 9.7 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 (-10.7%). 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 35.4 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 March 2025 was for "Drugs-Drug Trafficking", accounting for 39 percent of prosecutions. Prosecutions were also filed for "Withheld by Govt from TRAC (FOIA challen" (31.5%), "Drugs-Organized Crime Task Force" (21.9%), "Weapons-Operation Triggerlock Major" (2.6%). See Figure 2.
Prosecutions in U.S. Magistrate Courts
Top Ranked Lead Charges
In March 2025, 136 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 March 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 45.6 percent of all magistrate filings in March.
Other frequently prosecuted lead charges include: "21 USC 846 - Attempt and conspiracy" (19.1%), "Other US Code Section" (5.9%).
Prosecutions in U.S. District Courts
In March 2025, 562 defendants in new cases for these matters were charged in the U.S. District Courts. In addition during March there were an additional 92 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 March.
Top Ranked Lead Charges
Table 2 shows the top lead charges recorded in the prosecutions of matters filed in U.S. District Court during March 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 248 1 1 1 More 21 USC 846 - Attempt and conspiracy 110 2 2 2 More 18 USC 922 - Firearms; Unlawful acts 13 3 4 4 More 18 USC 1962 - RICO - prohibited activities 13 3 29 11 More 46 USC 70503 - Possession control substance on vessel subject to jurisdiction of US 12 6 12 6 More 21 USC 963 - Attempt and conspiracy 7 7 6 9 More 21 USC 959 - Possession, manufacture, or distribution for purpo 5 8 8 11 More 18 USC 959 - Enlistment in foreign service 4 9 - - More 18 USC 1513 - Retaliating against a witness, victim or informant 3 10 - - More 18 USC 1956 - Laundering of monetary instruments 3 10 7 5 More 46 USC 70506 - Penalties 3 10 5 13 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 were "Other US Code Section" under Title U.S.C Section, "Firearms; Unlawful acts" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 922 and "RICO - prohibited activities" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 1962. "Other US Code Section" under Title U.S.C Section was ranked 3 a year ago, while it was ranked 3 five years ago."Firearms; Unlawful acts" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 922 was ranked 4 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 1200 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 — 100 percent — was registered for prosecutions under " Possession, manufacture, or distribution for purpo " (Title 21 U.S.C Section 959 ).
Again among the top ten lead charges, the one showing the sharpest decline in prosecutions compared to one year ago — down 69.4 percent — was " Penalties " (Title 46 U.S.C Section 70506 ). Compared to five years ago, the most significant decline in prosecutions — 69 percent — was for filings where the lead charge was " Laundering of monetary instruments " (Title 18 U.S.C Section 1956 ).
Top Ranked Judicial Districts
In March 2025 the Justice Department's case-by-case records show that the government brought 234.3 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 Ark, E 2,260 31 1 8 15 More W Virg, N 1,296 10 2 17 85 More Cal, S 1,218 35 3 11 12 More Okla, N 975 9 4 39 74 More Montana 847 8 5 49 72 More N Dakota 765 5 6 53 71 More La, W 750 13 7 39 41 More Texas, N 682 44 8 4 2 More Ken, E 644 12 9 18 30 More Ala, M 602 6 10 53 82 More Table 3. Top 10 Districts (per ten million people)
The Eastern District of Arkansas (Little Rock) — with 2260 prosecutions as compared with 234.3 prosecutions per ten million population in the United States — was the most active during March 2025. The Eastern District of Arkansas (Little Rock) was ranked 8 a year ago.
The Northern District of West Virginia (Wheeling) ranked 2nd.
Southern District of California (San Diego) is now ranking 3rd.
Recent entrants to the top 10 list were Southern District of California (San Diego), now ranked 3rd , and Northern District of West Virginia (Wheeling) at 2nd In the same order, these districts ranked 11th and 17th one year ago and 12th and 85th five years ago.
The federal judicial district which showed the greatest growth in the rate of prosecutions compared to one year ago — 85.7 percent — was Middle District of Alabama (Montgomery). This was the same district that had the largest increase — 271.4 percent — when compared with five years ago.
In the last year, the judicial District Court recording the largest drop in the rate of prosecutions — 52.4 percent — was Northern District of West Virginia (Wheeling). But over the past five years, Northern District of Texas (Fort Worth) showed the largest drop — 37.2 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 March 2025 are shown in Table 4.
Judge Count Rank Hendrix, James Wesley Texas, N 17 1 More Doughty, Terry Alvin La, W 13 2 More Azrack, Joan Marie N. Y., E 13 2 More Velez-Rive, Camille L. Puer Rico 12 4 More Bashant, Cynthia Ann Cal, S 11 5 More Honeywell, Charlene Vanessa Edwards Fla, M 11 5 More Wang, Nina Y. Colorado 10 7 More Jung, William Frederic Fla, M 9 8 More Sammartino, Janis Lynn Cal, S 8 9 More Counts, Walter David, III Texas, W 8 9 More Table 4. Top Ten Judges
A total of 4 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 6 judges were from other districts.
Judge James Wesley Hendrix in the Northern District of Texas (Fort Worth) ranked 1st with 17 defendants in cases.
Judges Terry Alvin Doughty in the Western District of Louisiana (Shreveport) and Joan Marie Azrack in the Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn) ranked 2nd with 13 defendants in cases.
Report Generated: May 14, 2025
