Lexington County Woman Gets Five Years for Firearm Possession in Drug Trafficking Case

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Brittany Nicole Miles, 37, of Lexington, was sentenced to five years in federal prison for possessing a firearm during a drug trafficking crime, the U.S. Department of Justice announced on June 1, 2026.

The sentence applies to a single defendant. Miles must serve the full five-year term, which federal law sets as the mandatory minimum for this offense. The conviction stems from evidence that she held a firearm while engaged in drug trafficking activity in Lexington County.

The penalty changes her status from pretrial defendant to federal inmate. She will begin serving the term immediately upon transfer to the Bureau of Prisons. No supervised release or additional fines were detailed in the sentencing announcement.

Downstream, the five-year removal from the community ends any ongoing participation by Miles in the specific drug trafficking operation documented by investigators. Federal prosecutors in the District of South Carolina must now close this prosecution file while continuing enforcement against any co-conspirators not named in the release.

The case also adds one completed firearms-in-drug-trafficking conviction to the district’s annual totals, which are tracked by the U.S. Attorney’s Office and forwarded to national DOJ statistics used for resource allocation.

This sentencing follows standard application of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c), the statute that imposes the five-year mandatory minimum for possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Carolina handled the prosecution from indictment through sentencing in federal district court in Columbia.

The June 1 announcement marks the final public step in Miles’ case. Similar § 924(c) prosecutions have formed a consistent part of the district’s drug enforcement docket in recent years.