A convicted member of the Sinaloa cartel who was pals with the son of jailed drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and loved flaunting pictures of himself posing with Al Pacino and other celebrities was gunned down along an industrial stretch near Los Angeles, authorities said.
Eduardo Escobedo, 39, was one of two men killed Thanksgiving morning along Towne Avenue in Willowbrook, Calif., according to Los Angeles County Medical Examiner and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The other victim was convicted drug dealer Guillermo De Los Angeles Jr., 47, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Escobedo was nicknamed “El Mago,” which translates to “The Magician.” Once the cartel’s top marijuana trafficker, he served four years and nine months in a federal lockup for conspiring to distribute more than 10,000 kilos of pot — about 22,000 lbs — and laundering drug proceeds. He was released in 2018.
Escobedo and De Los Angeles died at the scene after sheriff’s deputies responded to a report of shots being fired in the industrial area filled with warehouses. A third man was taken to a local hospital with non-life threatening gunshot wounds.He was not identified.
“It appears that there was some type of gathering or party at the location from last night to early this morning,” Lt. Omar Camacho told KABC-TV Channel 7 at the scene.
Camacho said authorities had not determined motive for the killings.
Raised in East Los Angeles, Escobedo became the primary pot distributor locally to Guzman’s oldest son, Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar, according to the LA Times. He laundered the proceeds in part by buying exotic cars and shipping them to Culiacan, Sinaloa’s capital and the cartel’s stronghold.
It’s believed Escobedo also ordered the murder of a rival trafficker who was gunned down in his Bentley on the 101 Freeway in 2008. While Escobedo was never charged in the murder, his brother and another man were convicted and are serving life sentences.
In October 2013, Escobedo was caught on a wiretap speaking with Guzman Salazar about smuggling more than five tons of marijuana through a tunnel under the U.S.-Mexico border, prosecutors said.
Guzman Salazar remains one of Mexico’s most wanted men.
Escobedo also openly flaunted an opulent lifestyle on social media in recent years posing for photographs with Floyd Mayweather, Al Pacino and other celebs. He also wore flashy tracksuits by Dolce and Gabbana and a diamond-encrusted Richard Mille watch.
One photograph showed Escobedo holding a duffel bag full of money, according to the Times In another, he embraces a member of the Mexican Mafia while holding a bottle of Dom Perignon champagne.
