Criminal Division

The Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma is primarily engaged in the prosecution of federal crimes. Many federal crimes are those of exclusive jurisdiction in the federal court. Violations such as social security fraud or other federal government program fraud, federal tax violations, and mail and wire fraud are often only prosecutable federally. However, many other crimes are those of concurrent jurisdiction.

In recent years, Congress has expanded the areas of federal criminal jurisdiction, most notably involving illegal drugs and violent crime. Our Criminal Division has further engaged in a project to identify and prosecute the most serious and violent criminals in our district who are engaged in a variety of illegal activities. In matters involving the use of firearms in order to further illegal drug activities, we place special emphasis.

A combination of seasoned veteran prosecutors and a few young energetic additions to our stable of prosecutors has enabled us to continue to handle a wide variety of cases in the Criminal Division without extreme specialization.

Our Project Safe Neighborhoods Program has resulted in additional gun prosecutions. We have engaged Northeastern State University to obtain a federal grant in order to conduct crime mapping in our district and enable us to better identify those places where more recurrent and serious criminal activity has occurred. Also, we are engaged in the prosecution of Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) cases which exhibit a multi-state and sometimes multi-national character. Various federal and state investigative and police agencies refer cases to us. We often work multi-jurisdictional matters with local, state, and federal agents and police.

Our goal is to make the 26 counties which comprise the Eastern District of Oklahoma a safer place for the citizens to live. We endeavor to do this by identifying the most problematic criminal behavior and bringing it to federal court for prosecution.