Narco that sold crack, meth out of South L.A. storefront gets 12 years

A 54-year-old man, a member of what federal prosecutors referred to as the “Hoover Criminals Gang,” has been sentenced to 12 years in prison after he was found guilty of running a drug trafficking enterprise that distributed methamphetamine and crack cocaine, among other narcotics, out of his South Los Angeles storefront, authorities announced Tuesday.

From June 2017 to May 2018, according to a news release from the United States Attorney’s Central District of California Office, Andrew “Batman” Tate engaged in drug sales out of his store, TNN Market, and directed his employees to do the same.

He and a co-defendant, 59-year-old Bobby Lorenzo Reed, also known as “Zo” and “Z,” who owned a South L.A. store called H&E Smoke and Snack, supplied each other with narcotics and were implicated in dozens of illegal drug transactions and referrals.

Reed is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence in this case after pleading guilty to federal narcotics charges in June 2022.

The 54-year-old was the lead defendant in an indictment targeting the gang’s members and associates in an investigation dubbed, “Operation Hoover Dam,” the release noted. Prosecutors secured 10 convictions in the case, with Tate being the last defendant sentenced.

“Tate participated in an extensive and long-running drug conspiracy to sell drugs, including methamphetamine and crack cocaine, in South Los Angeles,” prosecutors argued in a sentencing memorandum. “Tate’s role in the drug conspiracy was significant; he was the head of the entire drug trafficking enterprise pumping drugs into a vulnerable area of Los Angeles.”

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, along with the Los Angeles Police Department and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, investigated the case.

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