Federal prosecutors in southern Ohio charged more people with violent crimes and firearms offenses in fiscal year 2026 than in any year since comparable records began in 2004, U.S. Attorney Dominick S. Gerace II announced in Cincinnati on Monday, November 2.
Source: U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Ohio
The Southern District of Ohio charged 237 defendants with violent crimes during the fiscal year, which ran from October 1, 2025 through September 30, 2026 — a 92.7 percent increase over fiscal year 2025, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Firearms prosecutions rose almost as fast, with 236 defendants charged with federal firearms offenses, up 93.4 percent on the year before.
Taken together, the office said, the total number of defendants charged with firearms offenses and violent crimes sets a Southern District of Ohio record based on available statistics going back to fiscal year 2004. The figures were reported independently on Monday by the Scioto Valley Guardian, which published the same district and city totals from the office's announcement.
Source: Scioto Valley Guardian
Columbus filed the most cases, Cincinnati rose the fastest
Columbus, the state capital, produced the largest share of the violent-crime caseload, with 99 defendants charged — up 67.8 percent on the year before. Cincinnati charged 82 defendants, a jump of 148.5 percent, and Dayton charged 56, up 80.6 percent. The district's three offices together cover the 48 southernmost counties of Ohio and a population of more than five million people.
The firearms numbers followed the same pattern. Cincinnati's firearms prosecutions jumped 250 percent to 63 defendants, Columbus rose 62.7 percent to 96 defendants, and Dayton rose 71.1 percent to 77 defendants. The charges were brought under two federal statutes, 18 U.S.C. 922(g) and 924(c) — the provisions that cover, among other conduct, firearms possession by people barred from having guns and the use of a firearm during a violent crime or drug-trafficking offense.
Fraud prosecutions rose too, led by two big benefit cases
White-collar prosecutions also climbed, rising 46.3 percent districtwide, with 60 defendants charged, the office said. Among the fraud cases the announcement cited were a Medicaid fraud scheme allegedly involving $30 million and a SNAP food-benefits fraud scheme allegedly involving $29.7 million, both tied to taxpayer-funded programs. Those dollar figures are the government's allegations in the underlying cases; the defendants in them are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
Gerace credited local, state and federal law-enforcement partners for the increases, and he thanked Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson for providing a special assistant U.S. attorney dedicated to federal gun cases, according to the announcement. The office said its wider priorities include combating child exploitation, protecting homeland security, reducing drug trafficking, enforcing immigration laws and dismantling transnational criminal organizations.
The prosecutor behind the numbers
Gerace is a former federal prosecutor with nearly a decade of experience as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of Ohio and the Eastern District of Virginia, where his work included national-security, terrorism, drug-trafficking and violent-crime cases, according to the Justice Department. He has served as U.S. attorney since August 11, 2025, was confirmed by the Senate, and was sworn in again on December 29, 2025 after his commission was signed. Earlier in his career he received the Attorney General's Award for his work on the federal investigation arising from the August 2019 mass shooting in Dayton.
When a gun or violent-crime case is charged federally instead of in state court, it is heard in U.S. district court, investigated with federal agencies such as the ATF and FBI, and sentenced under federal law. A districtwide surge of this size therefore changes where hundreds of Ohio cases are fought — and how quickly they move.
For residents of Columbus, Cincinnati and Dayton — including the Punjabi and wider South Asian communities who live and run businesses across southern Ohio — the announcement is a signal that federal prosecutors intend to keep taking a larger share of gun and violent-crime cases off local streets and into federal court. Prosecution statistics measure charging decisions, not crime itself, and a rise in defendants charged does not by itself show whether violent crime in the region rose or fell over the same year.
What happens next
The hundreds of cases behind these totals now move through the federal courts in the district's three divisions — arraignments, plea negotiations, trials and sentencings that will run well into fiscal 2027, which began on October 1. Individual outcomes will be decided case by case; a charge is an accusation, and every defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty. The office gave no single next announcement date, but said the work behind the record year is continuing.