LOS ANGELES
A South Los Angeles man was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in federal prison for armed robbery of an undercover U.S. Secret Service agent who was conducting an investigation into the trafficking of counterfeit money, according to officials.
U.S. District Judge John A. Kronstadt sentenced Tyre Jordan Simmons, a.k.a., “Reckless,” 23.
Simmons plead guilty in September robbery, assault with a deadly weapon on a federal officer and using a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence in relation to the March 26, 2018 incident, according to authorities.
According to court documents, Simmons arranged to meet with the undercover federal agent, who was posing as a criminal who wanted to purchase counterfeit U.S. currency.
But, instead of conducting a deal for bogus money, Simmons planned to rob the agent of the money that Simmons expected him to bring to the illicit deal.
During the incident, Simmons brought a duffel bag filled with clothes to simulate the appearance of counterfeit money and got into the front passenger seat of the agent’s car.
When Simmons demanded to see the money, the agent retrieved $4,500 from the trunk and got back into the car, at which point Simmons pulled a loaded 9mm handgun from his bag, pointed it at the agent’s head and demanded the cash and the car keys.
As Simmons was getting out of the car, other agents arrived on scene and knocked the gun and money from Simmons’s hands.
Simmons escaped into the surrounding neighborhood, but he was arrested three days later.
Simmons’s co-defendant in the case – Richard Taron Henderson, a.k.a. “Profit,” 23, also of South Los Angeles – last month was sentenced to 90 months in federal prison after he pleaded guilty to selling counterfeit money, conspiracy, robbery, assault with a deadly weapon on a federal officer, and using a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, officials stated.