The Criminal Division

The Criminal Division of the U. S. Attorney's Office in South Carolina is the largest of the Office's divisions. Over fifty personnel are assigned to the Criminal Division.

The Criminal Division is divided into three sections, General Crimes/White Collar, Narcotics/OCDETF, and Violent Crime. The General Crimes/White Collar Section focuses on complex fraud and financial crimes that the federal government is uniquely qualified to handle. Cases include mortgage fraud, bank fraud, securities fraud, health care fraud, copyright and trademark violations, theft of trade secrets, identity theft, illegal reentry, environmental crimes and many others. The General Crimes/White Collar Section also prosecutes computer and child exploitation crimes including those involving the sexual exploitation of children and internet child pornography, computer intrusions, and internet fraud. Finally, this Section is responsible for handling criminal civil rights cases, public corruption cases, and terrorism cases.

The Narcotics/Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) Section focuses on prosecuting violations of the Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act, which sets out federal criminal offenses involving unlawful importation, possession, distribution, and manufacture of controlled substances. The Act also has rules concerning civil and criminal forfeiture of contraband, facilities used to further unlawful drug trafficking and the proceeds of unlawful drug trafficking. OCDETF prosecutors in this section focus on major drug traffickers whose organizations span District and international borders. The Narcotics/OCDETF Section also handles gang-related crimes that have a nexus to narcotics trafficking.

The Violent Crimes Section focuses on the federal prosecution of Title 18 firearms offenses, violations of the National Firearms Act under Title 26, kidnappings, carjacking, Hobbs Act Robbery, bank robbery, gang related organized crime, and other crimes of violence.  Prosecutors in this Section head up Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), the Attorney General’s flagship strategy aimed at combating violent crime through targeted prosecution of violent repeat offenders.