LOS ANGELES
A member of the Hoover Criminals Gang pleaded guilty Tuesday to a federal criminal charge for conspiring to distribute narcotics, including crack cocaine and methamphetamine, officials stated.
The drugs were sold at his storefront in South Los Angeles, officials stated.
Andrew Tate, 54, a.k.a. “Batman,” of South Los Angeles, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances. He is the lead defendant in an indictment targeting the gang’s members and associates as part of an investigation dubbed “Operation Hoover Dam.”
According to his plea agreement, Tate owned a business named TNN Market, and he sold methamphetamine, crack cocaine, and powder cocaine from it.
Tate and co-defendant Bobby Lorenzo Reed, 58, a.k.a. “Zo” and “Z,” who owned the South Los Angeles-based store H&E Smoke and Snack Shop, referred customers to one another, supplied one another, and directed their employees to engage in drug sales and referrals in dozens of narcotics transactions from June 2017 to May 2018.
U.S. District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. scheduled sentencing for Dec. 13.
Tate faces up to life in prison.
In total, federal prosecutors have secured 10 convictions in this case.
Reed pleaded guilty on June 7 to federal criminal charges in this case and is scheduled to be sentenced on September 13.
On June 22, co-defendant Willie Alsha Hill, 51, of South Los Angeles, was found guilty by a jury of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances. He is scheduled to be sentenced on October 11.
The FBI, the Los Angeles Police Department, and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation investigated this matter.
Assistant United States Attorneys Jenna Williams and Jason Pang of the International Narcotics, Money Laundering, and Racketeering Section are prosecuting this case.