The Associated Press
Posted: 07/03/2009 02:32:05 AM PDT

LOS ANGELES—A former gang member was charged with murder in the shooting death of a car salesman whose body was found in his silver 2005 Bentley and may have had ties to a powerful drug cartel.

Michael Angel Aleman, 34, was charged Thursday with one count each of murder, attempted murder and shooting at an occupied vehicle involving the shooting of Jose Luis Macias. If convicted, Aleman faces a sentence of life in prison.

Authorities said Macias, 25, was first shot while stopped at a light in downtown Los Angeles in December and then fatally wounded by shots fired from a vehicle following him after he drove onto Highway 101.

A search warrant affidavit filed by a Los Angeles police detective said investigators learned that Macias may have been selling drugs for the notorious Arellano Felix cartel, the Los Angeles Times reported. The court document quotes an officer who says a friend of Macias since childhood, Eddie Escobedo, may have had him gunned down to take over the local business.

“He said that Macias was dealing drugs” for the cartel, the document says. “He further stated that a power struggle erupted between the two because Eddie Escobedo wanted to be the ’shot caller.’ ”

Escobedo’s whereabouts could not be determined.

Another man the affidavit names in connection with the case, Sabino Cabral, 26, is in custody on suspicion of lesser offenses and has not been charged in the killing.

Cabral was believed to have had a 9-millimeter pistol that was used in the Macias shooting, the affidavit said.

The documents in the Macias case do not state the cartel directly sanctioned the shooting.

In the 1990s, Aleman was convicted of carrying a concealed weapon, and later of voluntary manslaughter, and was sentenced to eight years in prison, prosecutors said.

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