§2E4.1 Unlawful Conduct Relating to Contraband Cigarettes and Smokeless Tobacco: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2016
In fiscal year 2016, 28 people were sentenced in federal court with guideline §2E4.1 as the primary guideline. 16 of them (57%) received a prison term, with a median prison term of 8 months. Restitution was ordered for 18 (64%), and only 5 sentences (18%) were within the guideline range.
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In brief: In fiscal year 2016, 28 people were sentenced in federal court with guideline §2E4.1 as the primary guideline. 16 of them (57%) received a prison term, with a median prison term of 8 months. Restitution was ordered for 18 (64%), and only 5 sentences (18%) were within the guideline range.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 28 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2016. 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.
Restitution and Prison in Fiscal Year 2016
The Guidelines Manual titles §2E4.1 "Unlawful Conduct Relating to Contraband Cigarettes and Smokeless Tobacco." In fiscal year 2016, the U.S. Sentencing Commission recorded 28 people sentenced with this guideline as the primary guideline. The primary guideline is the one that set the offense level for the most serious count.
Restitution, which is payment ordered to compensate for a loss, was ordered for 18 of the 28 people (64%). A fine was ordered for 3 (11%).
16 people (57%) were sentenced to prison, and 11 (39%) received probation only, with no prison or other confinement.
The Length of Prison Terms
The median prison term among those sent to prison was 8 months. A quarter received 12 months or more, and a quarter received 2.3 months or less.
For all fiscal years 2016 to 2025 under this guideline, 48% were sent to prison and the median prison term was 12 months. The 2016 prison rate was higher, and the 2016 median was lower.
15 people (54%) were ordered to serve supervised release after prison, with a median term of 36 months. No mandatory minimum prison term applied to any of the 28.
Few Sentences Were Within the Range
The guideline range is the range the Manual calculates for each case. 5 of the 28 sentences (18%) were within it. 10 (36%) were below it at the government's request, and 13 (46%) were below it without a government request. 0 were above the range.
Over all years under this guideline, 25% of sentences were within the range. For all federal cases in fiscal year 2016, the figure was 49%. The 18% here was lower than both.
Guilty Pleas
27 of the 28 people (96%) pleaded guilty, and 1 was convicted after a trial. Among the guilty pleas, 93% had a written plea agreement and 7% were straight pleas with no agreement.
The median prison term after a guilty plea was 6 months. After a trial it was 12 months, based on 1 person convicted at trial and sent to prison. One case does not allow a general comparison.
Criminal History
82% of the group were in the lowest criminal history category I, and 0% were in the highest category VI. Court-martial records have no criminal history field.
Other Years and All Federal Cases
The Commission lists these cases under the offense type "Extortion/Racketeering." Fiscal year 2016 ran from October 1, 2015 to September 30, 2016. In fiscal year 2017, the next year, 29 people were sentenced under §2E4.1, the median prison term was 12 months, and 28% were within the range.
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2016, under every guideline, totals 67,742 people, with a median prison term of 24 months and 97% guilty pleas. Over all years, 224 people were sentenced under §2E4.1, and guilty pleas were more than 99%. The table lists every year.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 28 | 8 months | 96% |
| 2017 | 29 | 12 months | 100% |
| 2018 | 45 | 13.5 months | 100% |
| 2019 | 25 | 2 months | 100% |
| 2020 | 28 | 6 months | 100% |
| 2021 | 21 | 24 months | 100% |
| 2022 | 12 | 0.3 months | 92% |
| 2023 | 11 | 31 months | 100% |
| 2024 | 22 | 6 months | 100% |
| 2025 | 3 | 0 months | 3 of 3 |
What Cannot Be Read From This Data
The records show who was sentenced, not who was charged. Acquittals and dismissals do not appear, and prison terms are those imposed, not time served.
A group of 28 is small, and one year is not a trend. No close court-martial counterpart exists in the approved crosswalk, so only federal numbers appear here.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2016 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2E4.1 (28), 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.
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)
- §2E4.1 Unlawful Conduct Relating to Contraband Cigarettes and Smokeless Tobacco: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- §2E4.1 Unlawful Conduct Relating to Contraband Cigarettes and Smokeless Tobacco: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2017 (previous or next fiscal year)
- How Often Federal Judges Sentence Outside the Guideline Range
- Mandatory Minimums: How Many Federal Sentences Are Set by Congress
- 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.