§2E4.1 Unlawful Conduct Relating to Contraband Cigarettes and Smokeless Tobacco: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2020
Restitution was ordered for all 28 people (100%) sentenced under guideline §2E4.1 in fiscal year 2020. 23 of them (82%) received probation only, and 3 (11%) received a prison term. Only 2 sentences (7%) were within the guideline range.
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Trends › Federal Prosecution Analysis › §2E4.1 Unlawful Conduct Relating to Contraband Cigarettes an › §2E4.1: FY2020
In brief: Restitution was ordered for all 28 people (100%) sentenced under guideline §2E4.1 in fiscal year 2020. 23 of them (82%) received probation only, and 3 (11%) received a prison term. Only 2 sentences (7%) 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 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.
Restitution for Every Person Sentenced
28 people were sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2020 under §2E4.1 as the primary guideline. A restitution order, which requires payment toward a loss, applied to every one of them: 28 of 28 (100%).
Fines were less common. 2 people (7%) were ordered to pay one. Amounts of restitution and fines are not part of the data used here.
The Manual's title for §2E4.1 is "Unlawful Conduct Relating to Contraband Cigarettes and Smokeless Tobacco." October 1, 2019 to September 30, 2020 is the fiscal year in question.
Probation Far More Common Than Prison
23 of the 28 people (82%) received probation only, with no prison or other confinement. 3 (11%) were sentenced to prison. Over all fiscal years 2016 to 2025 under this guideline, 48% were sent to prison.
The median prison term among the 3 was 6 months. A quarter received 9 months or more, and a quarter received 6 months or less. These figures rest on 3 people.
3 people (11%) 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.
Almost No Sentences Within the Range
The guideline range is the range the Manual calculates for a case. 2 of the 28 sentences (7%) were within it. 18 (64%) were below it at the government's request, and 8 (29%) were below it without a government request. 0 were above the range.
For all years under this guideline, 25% of sentences were within the range. For all federal cases in fiscal year 2020, the share was 50%. The 7% here was lower than both.
Pleas and Criminal History
All 28 people (100%) pleaded guilty, and 0 went to trial. Among them, 100% had a written plea agreement and 0% were straight pleas with no agreement.
In criminal history, 96% were in the lowest category I, and 0% were in the highest category VI. Court-martial records have no criminal history field.
Years Before and After, and All Federal Cases
Fiscal year 2019 had 25 people under §2E4.1, a median prison term of 2 months, and 36% within the range. Fiscal year 2021 had 21 people, a median of 24 months, and 19% within the range.
These cases belong to the Commission's "Extortion/Racketeering" offense type. The whole federal caseload in fiscal year 2020 was 64,565 people, with a median prison term of 18 months and 98% guilty pleas. Over fiscal years 2016 to 2025, §2E4.1 accounts for 224 people. The table gives each year's count, median, and plea rate.
| 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 These Numbers Do Not Explain
The numbers describe how sentences were distributed. They do not explain why the government requested a sentence below the range so often. Acquittals and dismissals never enter this data, and each prison term shown is the term imposed rather than time served.
A group of 28 people is small and covers 1 year, so it is not a trend. For military comparison, the approved crosswalk has no close court-martial match, and this post stays with federal figures.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2020 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 2019 (previous or next fiscal year)
- §2E4.1 Unlawful Conduct Relating to Contraband Cigarettes and Smokeless Tobacco: 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
- 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.