§2D1.1 Unlawful Manufacturing, Importing, Exporting, or Trafficking (Including Possession with Intent to Commit These Offenses): Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2020
In fiscal year 2020, 15,965 people were sentenced under §2D1.1. That count is lower than the counts for fiscal years 2016 to 2019 and for fiscal year 2021. The median prison term was 60 months (5 years), 98% pleaded guilty, and 32% were sentenced within the guideline range.
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Trends › Federal Prosecution Analysis › §2D1.1 Unlawful Manufacturing, Importing, Exporting, or Traf › §2D1.1: FY2020
In brief: In fiscal year 2020, 15,965 people were sentenced under §2D1.1. That count is lower than the counts for fiscal years 2016 to 2019 and for fiscal year 2021. The median prison term was 60 months (5 years), 98% pleaded guilty, and 32% were sentenced within the guideline range.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 15,965 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2020. Acquittals and dismissals come from a second source, the Federal Judicial Center's records of 753,808 federal defendants whose cases ended in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. It is part of the Federal Prosecution Analysis series, which builds on Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System. How the numbers were built: How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built.
A Smaller Group in Fiscal Year 2020
The Commission counted 15,965 people sentenced in fiscal year 2020 with §2D1.1 as the primary guideline. The previous year, 2019, had 19,463 people, and the next year, 2021, had 17,241. The 2020 count was lower than both.
The records give the count but not the reason for it. Fiscal year 2020 ran from October 1, 2019 to September 30, 2020, and the data cannot show what shaped the number of cases that reached sentencing in that period.
Of the 15,965 people, 15,412 (97%) received a prison term and 416 (3%) received probation only. The median prison term was 60 months (5 years), the same as in fiscal year 2019 and fiscal year 2021.
Prison Term Distribution
A quarter of the people sent to prison received 120 months or more, and a quarter received 30 months or less. 16 people received a life sentence, which is a small count.
The Sentencing Guidelines Manual titles §2D1.1 "Unlawful Manufacturing, Importing, Exporting, or Trafficking (Including Possession with Intent to Commit These Offenses); Attempt or Conspiracy". All cases here fall in the Commission's Drug Trafficking offense type.
Guilty Pleas and Trial Convictions
Among all 15,965 people, 15,585 (98%) pleaded guilty and 380 were convicted after a trial.
The median prison term after a guilty plea was 60 months. After a trial it was 180.5 months, based on 380 people convicted at trial and sent to prison. Among the guilty pleas, 91% had a written plea agreement and 9% were straight pleas.
These are medians for different groups of cases. They do not show what any individual would have received had the case ended differently.
Mandatory Minimums and the Guideline Range
A mandatory minimum applied to 11,159 of the 15,954 people with that information recorded (70%).
For the 15,960 people with the sentence position recorded, 32% (5,104) were within the guideline range. A sentence below the range at the government's request applied to 39% (6,182), and below the range without a government request to 28% (4,408). Above the range was 2% (266).
The share within the range was 34% in fiscal year 2019 and 28% in fiscal year 2021. Fiscal year 2020 was lower than 2019 and higher than 2021.
How 2020 Fits the Longer Record
Over fiscal years 2016 to 2025, §2D1.1 covered 181,468 people. The median prison term was 60 months, 98% pleaded guilty, and 31% were within the range. Fiscal year 2020 matched the median and the plea rate for the period.
In fiscal year 2020, everyone sentenced in federal court under any guideline numbered 64,565. Their median prison term was 18 months, 98% pleaded guilty, and 50% were within the range. The table lists the §2D1.1 numbers for each year.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 19,199 | 55 months | 98% |
| 2017 | 19,223 | 60 months | 98% |
| 2018 | 18,404 | 60 months | 97% |
| 2019 | 19,463 | 60 months | 98% |
| 2020 | 15,965 | 60 months | 98% |
| 2021 | 17,241 | 60 months | 99% |
| 2022 | 19,612 | 60 months | 98% |
| 2023 | 18,640 | 65 months | 98% |
| 2024 | 17,771 | 70 months | 98% |
| 2025 | 15,950 | 72 months | 98% |
Supervised Release, Fines, and Criminal History
Supervised release followed prison for 15,083 people (94%), with a median term of 48 months. 10 people (less than 1%) received it for life. A fine was ordered for 971 (6%), and restitution for 247 (2%).
In criminal history, 43% were in the lowest category (category I) and 14% in the highest (category VI). Court-martial records have no criminal history field.
What the Numbers Do Not Cover
Only people who were convicted and sentenced are counted. Acquittals and dismissals are not in the data, and prison terms are those imposed, not time served.
The §2D1.1 guideline is part of the approved pairing with Article 112a of the UCMJ. The comparison posts cover that pairing, and this post reports the federal numbers alone.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2020 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2D1.1 (15,965), U.S. Sentencing Commission individual data files. The primary guideline is the one that set the offense level for the most serious count.
Federal fiscal years run from October 1 to September 30. No person, judge, or lawyer is identified in any of these records.
What to Keep in Mind
No parole in federal prison; credit for good conduct. Federal prison has no parole for crimes committed on or after November 1, 1987. A federal prisoner can earn up to 54 days of good conduct credit for each year of the sentence the judge imposed, which is about 15%. Some federal prisoners can also earn First Step Act time credits, but many offenses make a person ineligible. The numbers in this post are the sentences judges imposed, not the time people actually served.
Federal supervised release. Most federal prison sentences are followed by a term of supervised release that the judge sets as part of the sentence. A person who violates it can be sent back to prison. A court-martial cannot sentence anyone to supervision after release. Military parole and mandatory supervised release are decided later by a board, not by the judge at trial.
Who decides the sentence, and under what rules. Federal judges sentence every federal case. They must calculate the Sentencing Guidelines range, which is advisory, and must impose any mandatory minimum the statute requires unless an exception applies. In courts-martial, the accused could choose sentencing by members until the rules changed. For cases in which every guilty finding is for an offense committed after December 27, 2023, a military judge sentences alone, within sentencing parameters. Courts-martial tried in 2024 and later include both old-rule and new-rule cases, and the data cannot tell them apart.
Time periods. Federal numbers are by federal fiscal year (October 1 to September 30), based on the sentencing date. The military numbers are by trial date. Neither source has the date of the offense, so a change in law shows up in either data set gradually.
How life sentences and "time served" are counted. In the federal numbers, a life sentence is counted as 470 months, and any other sentence longer than 470 months is counted as just under 470 months. A sentence of "time served" is counted as one day (0.03 months). Averages are affected by these rules; medians much less.
Mandatory minimum sentences. Many federal statutes on drugs, images of child exploitation, child sex abuse, and firearms carry mandatory minimum prison terms. The UCMJ has mandatory minimums only for a few offenses (a dishonorable discharge or dismissal for rape and sexual assault, and life for premeditated murder). Federal sentences for these offenses are partly set by Congress, not by the judge.
Related Analysis
- Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System (the background article)
- Federal Prosecution Analysis (all federal posts)
- How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built (sources and method)
- §2D1.1 Unlawful Manufacturing, Importing, Exporting, or Trafficking (Including Possession with Intent to Commit These Offenses): Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- §2D1.1 Unlawful Manufacturing, Importing, Exporting, or Trafficking (Including Possession with Intent to Commit These Offenses): Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2019 (previous or next fiscal year)
- §2D1.1 Unlawful Manufacturing, Importing, Exporting, or Trafficking (Including Possession with Intent to Commit These Offenses): Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2021 (previous or next fiscal year)
- How Often Federal Judges Sentence Outside the Guideline Range
- Mandatory Minimums: How Many Federal Sentences Are Set by Congress
- Army Article 112a Cases by the Numbers, 2021–2025 (court-martial data)
- What Sentence Follows an Army Drug Conviction? (court-martial data)
- How Often Are Contested Army Article 112a Cases Acquitted? (court-martial data)
- Guilty Pleas in Army Drug Cases: How Often, and What Came Next (court-martial data)
- Are Air Force Drug Courts-Martial Disappearing? Article 112a, 2016–2025 (court-martial data)
- How Much Confinement for an Article 112a Conviction in the Air Force? (court-martial data)
- Pleading Guilty to Article 112a in the Air Force: What Sentences Followed? (court-martial data)
- Is Navy-Marine Corps Drug Prosecution Rising or Falling? Article 112a, 2017–2025 (court-martial data)
- How Much Confinement for an Article 112a Conviction in the Navy-Marine Corps? (court-martial data)
- Fighting a Navy-Marine Corps Drug Charge: How Contested Cases Ended (court-martial data)
- When Navy-Marine Corps Accused Plead Guilty to Drug (court-martial data)
- Article 112a (Wrongful Use, Possession of Controlled Substances): Court-Martial Data and Trends (court-martial data)
- Article 112a UCMJ Drug Offenses and Positive Urinalysis (law firm reference page)
- U.S. Sentencing Commission, Individual Offender Datafiles (source)
- Federal Judicial Center, Integrated Database (criminal defendants) (source)
About the author. Jocelyn C. Stewart is a retired Army JAG with more than 24 years of trying courts-martial and more than 200 jury trials. She hosts Where All The Bodies Are Buried and runs the Law Office of Jocelyn C. Stewart. This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.