LOS ANGELES GANG MEMBER SENTENCED TO 46 MONTHS IN PRISON FOR DEALING CRACK COCAINE
Fontana, CA Resident Traveled to Seattle, Arrested at Drug Deal in Supermarket Parking Lot
DEANDRE HOWARD BRADFORD, 34, of Fontana, California was sentenced Monday to 46 months in prison and three years of supervised release for Possession of Cocaine Base with Intent to Distribute. U.S. District Judge James L. Robart agreed with prosecutors' recommendation that BRADFORD serve nearly four years in prison.
According to court records, on February 11, 2006, BRADFORD and co-defendant Devonne Michael Lee, both of whom were members of the Kelly Park Crips (Compton, California), were arrested in the parking lot of a Safeway store on Rainier Avenue South. While sitting in the car, BRADFORD, at Lee’s direction, sold crack cocaine to a third man. Additional crack cocaine and a Sig Sauer 9mm semiautomatic pistol were found inside the engine compartment of Lee’s car. At Lee’s home agents and local police officers found more than $15,000 in cash. Lee entered guilty pleas to Conspiracy to Distribute Cocaine Base and Possession of a Firearm in Furtherance of a Drug Crime on May 18, 2006, and will be sentenced December 4, 2006.
In asking for the 46 month sentence Assistant United States Attorney John Lulejian wrote to the court that BRADFORD, “despite a conviction in the Eastern District of Washington for the identical conduct, extended the Kelly Park Crips’ tentacles to the local community, where they expanded the reach and scope of their criminal enterprise.”
The case was an Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigation, providing supplemental federal funding to the federal and state agencies involved. The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration's Mobile Enforcement Team and ATF, with assistance from the Seattle Police Department East and West Precincts Anti-Crime Teams.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney John J. Lulejian and Special Assistant United States Attorney Adam W. Cornell.
For additional information please contact Emily Langlie, Public Affairs Officer for the United States Attorney’s Office, at (206) 553-4110.
