Prosecutions for May 2025
Referring Agency: Drug Enforcement Administration
The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during May 2025 the government reported 591 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 16.6 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 (-15.3%). 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 14.4 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 May 2025 was for "Drugs-Drug Trafficking", accounting for 42.8 percent of prosecutions. Prosecutions were also filed for "Withheld by Govt from TRAC (FOIA challen" (42.5%), "Drugs-Organized Crime Task Force" (9.8%), "Weapons-Operation Triggerlock Major" (2.5%). See Figure 2.
Prosecutions in U.S. Magistrate Courts
Top Ranked Lead Charges
In May 2025, 125 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 May 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 58.4 percent of all magistrate filings in May.
Prosecutions in U.S. District Courts
In May 2025, 466 defendants in new cases for these matters were charged in the U.S. District Courts. In addition during May there were an additional 108 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 May.
Top Ranked Lead Charges
Table 2 shows the top lead charges recorded in the prosecutions of matters filed in U.S. District Court during May 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 198 1 1 1 More 21 USC 846 - Attempt and conspiracy 85 2 2 2 More 18 USC 924 - Firearms; Penalties 8 4 19 - More 18 USC 1956 - Laundering of monetary instruments 8 4 8 6 More 18 USC 922 - Firearms; Unlawful acts 7 6 4 3 More 12 USC 1956 - Structuring Transactions to Evade Reporting Requirements 3 7 - - More 21 USC 843 - Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts C 3 7 10 8 More 18 USC 4 - Misprision of Felony 1 9 25 21 More 21 USC 959 - Possession, manufacture, or distribution for purpo 1 9 6 13 More 21 USC 963 - Attempt and conspiracy 1 9 9 8 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 850 percent — compared to one year ago was Title 18 U.S.C Section 924 that involves " Firearms; Penalties ". Compared to five years ago, the largest increase — 141.7 percent — was registered for prosecutions under " Attempt and conspiracy " (Title 21 U.S.C Section 963 ).
Again among the top ten lead charges, the one showing the sharpest decline in prosecutions compared to one year ago — down 53.8 percent — was " Possession, manufacture, or distribution for purpo " (Title 21 U.S.C Section 959 ). Compared to five years ago, the most significant decline in prosecutions — 33.1 percent — was for filings where the lead charge was " Attempt and conspiracy " (Title 21 U.S.C Section 846 ).
Top Ranked Judicial Districts
In May 2025 the Justice Department's case-by-case records show that the government brought 205.7 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 S Dakota 1,722 13 1 33 38 More N Dakota 1,378 9 2 26 78 More Mo, E 1,113 27 3 8 15 More Ark, E 1,094 15 4 11 20 More Montana 953 9 5 50 66 More Texas, E 939 35 6 2 4 More N Mexico 851 15 7 21 6 More Okla, E 805 5 8 83 66 More Ken, E 644 12 9 14 31 More La, E 586 8 10 43 45 More Table 3. Top 10 Districts (per ten million people)
The District of South Dakota — with 1722 prosecutions as compared with 205.7 prosecutions per ten million population in the United States — was the most active during May 2025.
The District of North Dakota ranked 2nd.
Eastern District of Missouri (St. Louis) is now ranking 3rd. The Eastern District of Missouri (St. Louis) was ranked 8 a year ago.
Recent entrants to the top 10 list were Eastern District of Arkansas (Little Rock), now ranked 4th , and Eastern District of Kentucky (Lexington) at 9th In the same order, these districts ranked 11th and 14th one year ago and 20th and 31st five years ago.
The federal judicial district which showed the greatest growth in the rate of prosecutions compared to one year ago — 9.1 percent — was Eastern District of Oklahoma (Muskogee). Compared to five years ago, the district with the largest growth — 281.8 percent — was North Dakota .
In the last year, the judicial District Court recording the largest drop in the rate of prosecutions — 45.7 percent — was Eastern District of Louisiana (New Orleans). But over the past five years, New Mexico showed the largest drop — 38.5 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 May 2025 are shown in Table 4.
Judge Count Rank Browning, James O. N Mexico 14 1 More Mazzant, Amos L. Texas, E 14 1 More Crane, Randy Texas, S 14 1 More Domenico, Daniel Desmond Colorado 13 4 More Autrey, Henry Edward Mo, E 13 4 More Welte, Peter David N Dakota 9 6 More Wier, Robert Earl Ken, E 7 7 More Watters, Susan Pamela Montana 7 7 More Bulsara, Sanket J. N. Y., E 7 7 More Marshall, Denzil Price, Jr. Ark, E 5 10 More Berger, Wendy Williams Fla, M 5 10 More Ketchmark, Roseann Ambrosia Mo, W 5 10 More Table 4. Top Ten Judges
A total of 7 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 5 judges were from other districts. (Because of ties, there were a total of 12 judges in the "top ten" rankings.)
Judges James O. Browning in the District of New Mexico, Amos L. Mazzant in the Eastern District of Texas (Tyler) and Randy Crane in the Southern District of Texas (Houston) ranked 1st with 14 defendants in cases.
Report Generated: July 16, 2025
