Shotto

Services for John R. Shotto, a Baltimore shipping executive who was fatally shot Wednesday near a Southeast Baltimore warehouse, will be held at 11 a.m. tomorrow at the Howard K. McComas Funeral Home, 1317 Cokesbury Road, Abingdon.Mr. Shotto, who was 52 and lived in Bel Air, worked in the maritime industry all of his adult life, in ports in the United States and abroad. He worked for SeaLand Service Inc. in numerous cities, including Baltimore, for 19 years.In 1980, Mr. Shotto founded Meridian Shipping Inc., a Baltimore steamship agency and charter broker.

A man suspected of being a high-level figure in one of the world's largest drug cartels faces extradition to Maryland on charges that he ordered the 1991 assassination of a South Baltimore businessman, who U.S. agents say was killed in a giant drug-smuggling scheme. Ernesto Forero-Orjuela, 46, who federal prosecutors believe is a member of the Cali cartel and who had been a fugitive for more than six years, was arrested Thursday night in New Jersey, where he had been working for financial services giant Merrill Lynch.

In Evening Sun stories last week about the slayings of two businessmen in Baltimore, the relationship between John R. "Jack" Shotto and Baltimore International Warehousing Co. was incorrectly reported.Shotto was an independent consultant handling sales and marketing for the warehouse, according to a lawyer for the owner of the warehouse.The Evening Sun regrets the error.Police believe the owner of a warehouse was the intended target of a gunman, who killed the businessman and a man he was talking to as the victims stood on a Broening Highway parking lot.Shortly before 6 p.m. Wednesday, John R. "Jack" Shotto, 52, of the 1600 block of Rolling Road near Bel Air, and Raymond Nicholson, 38, of Glenn Dale in Prince George's County, were gunned down outside Shotto's Baltimore International Warehousing Co. at the Maritime Center at Point Breeze near Dundalk.

Federal authorities have established a link between the assassination last year of a crusading anti-drug journalist in New York and the 1991 execution-style murders of a Baltimore waterfront businessman and a hardware store chain vice president.In a series of interviews, law enforcement officials said the murders of John R. Shotto, a financially troubled entrepreneur in Baltimore, and Raymond Nicholson, vice president of the Hechinger Co., resulted from an order by the Cali cocaine cartel based in Colombia.

A 52-year-old Baltimore businessman killed in a drive-by shooting Sept. 4 was under investigation by federal drug agents for his role as part-owner of a ship acquired in a Colombian drug-smuggling and money-laundering scheme, authorities said yesterday.John R. Shotto of the 1600 block of Rolling Road, Bel Air, had admitted during federal lien proceedings in Norfolk, Va., in 1988 to owing $3.6 million to a firm linked to the Cali drug cartel -- the world's biggest cocaine producer, according to narcotics authorities.

Federal prosecutors in Baltimore are seeking civil forfeiture of $1.7 million seized from the recent sale of a commercial ship linked to the Colombian Cali drug cartel and the Sept. 4 shooting death of local shipper John R. Shotto.The government's complaint, filed late Monday in U.S. District Court here, also seeks the forfeiture of $38,000 in cash that federal agents seized at Baltimore-Washington International Airport three years ago from Ernesto Forero-Orjuela, who has family ties to the Cali cartel.

John R. "Jack" Shotto, a handsome, take-no-prisoners entrepreneur on the Baltimore waterfront, had just finished a lengthy business meeting at the Baltimore International Warehouse Company's office on Broening Highway.As he and three associates stepped into the nearly-empty parking lot on the evening of Sept. 4, Shotto was unaware of two men watching his movements from a sedan parked nearby.As Shotto, 52, walked toward his powder-blue Mercedes Benz with his keys in his hand, the sedan lurched toward him.The car, its front right window rolled down, stopped about 10 feet away.

A joint federal-city task force is investigating the September FTC slayings of two businessmen killed in a drive-by shooting outside the offices of a Broening Highway warehouse firm, the U.S. attorney's office confirmed yesterday.Faced with the possibility that the slayings are the result of an interstate murder-for-hire conspiracy, FBI agents were called into the homicide investigation about a month after John R. Shotto and Raymond Nicholson were gunned down, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter M. Semel.

The slayings of two business executives in Baltimore this fall are now being investigated by a special federal-city task force interested in, among other leads, the possibility of a murder-for-hire contract ordered by East Coast organized crime figures.Reliable sources said federal subpoenas have been issued for telephone records of at least one Maryland resident and others who live out of state. Also, a "substantial" number of interviews have been conducted by prosecutors.Peter M. Semel, assistant U.S. attorney for Maryland, said the cooperative investigation involving his office and the Baltimore state's attorney's office began about a month after the Sept.

John R. Shotto, the shipping and storage company entrepreneur who was shot Wednesday in Southeast Baltimore, operated in a world of ship's captains and cargo and foreign ports and stevedores, a world where the waves were sometimes calm and sometimes stormy.A year ago, Mr. Shotto's business, Meridian Ship Agency, ran into stormier seas than it could handle, slipping into bankruptcy and leaving scores of shippers, stevedores and others holding a $2.21 million bag of unpaid bills.Now investigators are trying to determine if there are any connections between the shooting and Mr. Shotto's failed business deals, or his involvement as a "secondary figure" in a federal investigation that sources say was under way when he was killed.

Six years ago, Carolyn Gelazela was a housewife who wanted a job to help pay the college tuition for her oldest child. She answered a newspaper ad and wound up with a new occupation -- shining shoes.Dressed in a tuxedo, Mrs. Gelazela works a chair at the Marriott Inn in Hunt Valley. Her business, "Carolyn Shoeshine Inc.," serves a predominantly male clientele.Over time, she has developed a close bond with some of her clients; they discuss a variety of subjects, from family issues to politics.

A joint federal-city task force is investigating the September FTC slayings of two businessmen killed in a drive-by shooting outside the offices of a Broening Highway warehouse firm, the U.S. attorney's office confirmed yesterday.Faced with the possibility that the slayings are the result of an interstate murder-for-hire conspiracy, FBI agents were called into the homicide investigation about a month after John R. Shotto and Raymond Nicholson were gunned down, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter M. Semel.

The slayings of two business executives in Baltimore this fall are being investigated by a special federal-city task force interested in, among other leads, the possibility of a murder-for-hire contract ordered by East Coast organized crime figures.Reliable sources said federal subpoenas have been issued for telephone records of at least one Maryland resident and others who live out of state. Also, a "substantial" number of interviews have been conducted by prosecutors.Peter M. Semel, assistant U.S. attorney for Maryland, said the cooperative investigation involving his office and the Baltimore state's attorney's office began about a month after the Sept.

John R. "Jack" Shotto, a handsome, take-no-prisoners entrepreneur on the Baltimore waterfront, had just finished a lengthy business meeting at the Baltimore International Warehouse Company's office on Broening Highway.As he and three associates stepped into the nearly-empty parking lot on the evening of Sept. 4, Shotto was unaware of two men watching his movements from a sedan parked nearby.As Shotto, 52, walked toward his powder-blue Mercedes Benz with his keys in his hand, the sedan lurched toward him.The car, its front right window rolled down, stopped about 10 feet away.

Federal prosecutors in Baltimore are seeking civil forfeiture of $1.7 million seized from the recent sale of a commercial ship linked to the Colombian Cali drug cartel and the Sept. 4 shooting death of local shipper John R. Shotto.The government's complaint, filed late Monday in U.S. District Court here, also seeks the forfeiture of $38,000 in cash that federal agents seized at Baltimore-Washington International Airport three years ago from Ernesto Forero-Orjuela, who has family ties to the Cali cartel.

A 52-year-old Baltimore businessman killed in a drive-by shooting Sept. 4 was under investigation by federal drug agents for his role as part-owner of a ship acquired in a Colombian drug-smuggling and money-laundering scheme, authorities said yesterday.John R. Shotto of the 1600 block of Rolling Road, Bel Air, had admitted during federal lien proceedings in Norfolk, Va., in 1988 to owing $3.6 million to a firm linked to the Cali drug cartel -- the world's biggest cocaine producer, according to narcotics authorities.

Federal authorities have established a link between the assassination last year of a crusading anti-drug journalist in New York and the 1991 execution-style murders of a Baltimore waterfront businessman and a hardware store chain vice president.In a series of interviews, law enforcement officials said the murders of John R. Shotto, a financially troubled entrepreneur in Baltimore, and Raymond Nicholson, vice president of the Hechinger Co., resulted from an order by the Cali cocaine cartel based in Colombia.

In Evening Sun stories last week about the slayings of two businessmen in Baltimore, the relationship between John R. "Jack" Shotto and Baltimore International Warehousing Co. was incorrectly reported.Shotto was an independent consultant handling sales and marketing for the warehouse, according to a lawyer for the owner of the warehouse.The Evening Sun regrets the error.City homicide detectives today sought a motive and two assailants in the apparent professional killings yesterday of two businessmen gunned down outside a southeast Baltimore warehouse.

Services for John R. Shotto, a Baltimore shipping executive who was fatally shot Wednesday near a Southeast Baltimore warehouse, will be held at 11 a.m. tomorrow at the Howard K. McComas Funeral Home, 1317 Cokesbury Road, Abingdon.Mr. Shotto, who was 52 and lived in Bel Air, worked in the maritime industry all of his adult life, in ports in the United States and abroad. He worked for SeaLand Service Inc. in numerous cities, including Baltimore, for 19 years.In 1980, Mr. Shotto founded Meridian Shipping Inc., a Baltimore steamship agency and charter broker.