Marijuana trafficker murdered execution-style in Los Angeles
EXCLUSIVE: Akiva (David) Saltzman was found dead of a gunshot inside a torched car on Oct. 3. His lawyer, Howard Jacobs, said he was shot through the car window then the vehicle was set on fire.


A marijuana trafficker awaiting sentencing in Brooklyn Federal Court was murdered execution-style in Los Angeles, the Daily News has learned.

Akiva (David) Saltzman, 32, was found dead of a gunshot wound inside a torched auto on Oct. 3.

Saltzman’s lawyer, Howard Jacobs, said it appeared his client had been shot through the window and then the vehicle set on fire.

Saltzman had pleaded guilty two years ago to conspiracy to distribute marijuana, but a law enforcement source said Saltzman was not a snitch.

“I don’t think it is related to the case,” Jacobs told The Daily News.

Saltzman was a West Coast cog tasked with delivering illicit cash as part of a massive pot-dealing ring based in Staten Island and headed by cannabis kingpin Jonathan Braun, an Orthodox Jew who lived with his parents.

“As I explained in my original proffer, the only time I ever sort of got a general understanding of the extent of this enterprise was when I read it in The Daily News on the Internet,” Saltzman told Magistrate Viktor Pohorelsky on Sept. 7, 2012.

Another knowledgeable source said there was speculation that Saltzman might have been a government cooperator.

Saltzman, an aspiring actor who had studied at the Circle in the Square Theater School, was only facing 12 to 18 months in prison. No date had been scheduled for the sentencing.

A spokesman for the L.A. coroner’s office said a final cause of death is still under investigation.