‘El Mago,’ drug trafficker with ties to ‘El Chapo,’ shot dead in Los Angeles: authorities

2 dead in South LA shooting

One of the victims has since been identified as Eduardo "El Mago" Escobedo, a drug trafficker with known ties to Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

LOS ANGELES - Convicted drug trafficker "El Mago," who has ties to the son of jailed drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, was shot dead in Los Angeles County, according to authorities.

Eduardo Escobedo, 39, was one of two men killed Thanksgiving morning along Towne Avenue in Willowbrook, local sources confirmed with FOX News. The other victim was convicted drug dealer Guillermo De Los Angeles Jr., 47.

Both men died at the scene after Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies responded to a call reporting shots fired in the area. A third man who was not identified was taken to the hospital for treatment of non-life threatening injuries.

Escobedo, whose nickname "El Mago" translates to "the magician," was raised in East Los Angeles and went on to become the primary local marijuana distributor to El Chapo's eldest son, Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar, according to the publication.

File photo of drug trafficker Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman at Mexico's International Airport in Mexico city, Mexico, on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2014. Photographer: Susana Gonzalez/Bloomberg via Getty Images

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Escobedo also allegedly laundered the drug earnings by purchasing exotic cars and shipping them to the cartel's main hub in Culiacan, Sinaloa’s capital.

He served nearly five years in federal prison for conspiring to distribute more than 22,000 lbs. of pot and laundering drug proceeds. He was released in 2018.

After eluding capture for more than a dozen years, El Chapo was arrested in 2014 in Mazatlan. In 2019, he was convicted by a jury of being a principal leader of a continuing criminal enterprise, a count that includes 26 drug-related violations and one murder conspiracy, through his leadership of the Mexican organized crime syndicate known as the Sinaloa Cartel. In 2019, he was sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years, and was ordered to pay $12.6 billion in forfeiture.

El Chapo's wife, Emma Coronel Aispuro, was released in September of this year from a California halfway house. Aispuro was sentenced in 2021 to three years in prison after pleading guilty to helping her husband run his multibillion-dollar criminal empire. She had faced a minimum of 10 years in prison, but was subject to a so-called "safety valve" provision because she had no criminal record, was not considered a leader and was not involved with violence.

Los Angeles Los Angeles County Crime and Public Safety