MIAMI BEACH (CBSMiami) The Coast Guard offloaded about $93 million of cocaine Thursday afternoon on Miami Beach. But when he opens a new club in Panama City, the competition isn't happy and frames him for drug dealing. This is a guy that the FBI went after for years but could never get him. "He never forced us to do anything. His nightmare began in June , when police raided his Panama City strip club and arrested him and his Ukrainian partner for trafficking women and selling drugs. But he insists that, for once, he has done nothing wrong. Tony Galeota - Historical records and family trees - MyHeritage "I lived it up in Miami," he says. Shea fatally blasted bouncer Richard Jimenez in the face and then opened fire on the dancers, shooting one in the chest and another in the head. The domestic bliss lasted only a couple of weeks. While out of sight, he phoned his guy and lied about being in a particular taxi cab. Operation Odessa (2018) - IMDb Controlling it. Director Robin Dashwood Stars Alex Andreas Ricardo Burgos Tony Galeota He paid for her to secretly get an abortion. "It was puppy love," he says. And multiple sources close to Fainberg say he was pressured to rat out Seidle but refused. Instead, Galeota admits he's done bad things, such as. So I was literally stepping over dead bodies of the people who had been shanked and stuff over the course of the night.. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. If I were to make this story up and pitch it as a writer, producers would be like, Thats the worst pitch Ive ever heard. After that, Kristy closed Bongos. Indeed, Tony would turn Porky's into a moneymaking machine. 4:00AM. Michael Galeota Obituary (1984 - 2016) Chicago Sun-Times "I was just numb.". And she launched drunken tirades at Tony after baseball games, no matter how well the all-star shortstop performed. "That's the problem.". "She hasn't worked for 15 years. "I was 16 years old and amazed," he says. Wrongly imprisoned. Upon seeing 10 thugs rush the vehicle and hijack it with the unsuspecting passenger in back, Yester realized that the remaining cash would not be forthcoming. ", "You hear that?" Join the New Times community and help support independent "A family type thing, like an ale house with wings and beer," he says. More detailed reports on the crimes weren't available. But Monday morning, when it came time to walk out of La Joya, there was no vehicle waiting. The goods came from sources in the freshly fallen Soviet Union, a place where everything seemed to be up for grabs at ridiculously low prices. When one inmate killed another, the dead man's gang on the outside murdered the inmate's entire family, Galeota says. But when Galeota was arrested June 19, 2011, and charged with trafficking drugs and women, he was just as innocent as Stephen King's saintly inmate. On a Sunday night in July of 1991, a 29-year-old electrician named Phillip John Shea came into Quarterbacks shortly after Tony and Kristy left. The Coast Guard said each one of the kilos is worth $33,000. Galeota's enemies say that a life of sin has finally caught up with the flesh-peddler. "My family didn't care; they took it," Galeota says of the stolen goods. His attorney has warned him that prosecutors will likely appeal, so he plans to stay in Panama until his case is resolved. Back in the mid-1990s, if you were a Miami mobster seeking girls, guns, cocaine, the services of an arsonist, or muscle to beat down a deadbeat, Ludwig Tarzan Fainberg was your man. Next time, I will steal it back from him., Tarzan (left) at the site of the submarine. It wasn't until he ordered some Italian food and a cold Guinness that he finally felt like he was free. "I've been in this business my whole life. Locked up in one of the world's worst prisons, Tony has to prove his innocence and attempt an audacious escape. He was soon promoted from DJing weddings to robbing delivery trucks for the Paccione clan (which federal court records tie to the infamous Gambino crime family). Everybody wanted to make money. And he hopes to open a place in Fort Lauderdale when he's back. But he insists that, for once, he has done nothing wrong. Here, Galeota is just one of 500 prisoners crammed into a filthy cell block designed to hold 200 people. He left, but returned with a gun. If Galeota is freed, it will be a major blow for Panama's prostitution crackdown. His mother, Bonnie Gellilti, was "a bit of a criminal," Tony remembers. Tony Galeta. Its Colombian dancers were in Panama on six-month tourist visas, weren't licensed as prostitutes, and weren't getting required weekly health checkups. Log In or Sign Up Tony Galeota See Photos Anthony Galeota See Photos Tony Kalata See Photos Tony Galeote See Photos Tony Galea See Photos Tony Galeto See Photos Tony Gullette See Photos Tony Gulotta See Photos But his mind was on another kind of riches. He broke it off with the woman, but his problems were only beginning. "I'm not a religious person, but I believe I went to jail because I was living like a rock star -- running around with all these women, drinking a bottle of vodka every day for two years," he says. In the distance, La Cordillera de San Blas cuts through the Panamanian jungle like a serrated knife. But Monday morning, when it came time to walk out of La Joya, there was no vehicle waiting. Tony was a tough, muscular little shit back then. Rising swiftly through the ranks, John buries his conscience to become a notorious Mafia hitman. Nearly 300 feet long with 10 torpedo tubes (empty in this case), it was diesel but could be converted to electric for silent running. Tarzans on board and essentially youre in the movie, one way or another. Then I ended up spending a great deal of what I like to call social engineering, which is kind of like the hanging out with all these guys theyre all very secretive cats with these very sketchy kind of criminal pasts. Become a member to support the independent voice of South Florida Biography. As the couple drove south on I-95, they thought they were leaving the worst behind them. I gave each of my kids a Rolex when they were 5 years old. Research > Galeota > Tony Galeota. But instead of classical music, his specialty is sex. Jimmy Galeota has spent the last month-and-a-half grieving his older brother Michael's death - but perhaps the most difficult part of it all to swallow has been the bizarre circumstances that. He was a loan shark: generously offering money but punishing those who didn't pay back. But then the country's corrupt system turned on them. Garrulous and bearish, the dentist-turned-hood (practicing the former in the Soviet Union and training for the latter in Brighton Beach) routinely carried two pistols and operated out of his Hialeah, Fla., strip club, Porkys: famous for a small motorized car that pulled up between the spread legs of dancers as they performed. Two days later, he was transferred to La Joya a hellish cinder-block complex an hour outside of Panama City. The club was very successful. For two decades, Galeota managed Porky's, a Hialeah dive notorious for drugs, prostitution, and violence, where he was part pimp, part bouncer, and completely untouchable. "Anthony has been in jail for more than 15 months, and a judge hasn't even heard his case yet!" We travelled all the time. But Tony had darker secrets. This story has been shared 121,048 times. "It was a nightmare in there.". Marshals deported Ludwig Fainberg from Miami. Making the documentary, he says: I found the story so compelling and so riveting that I was just relentlessly magnetized to it. "She would use shoe polish to change our driver's licenses so we could go to clubs and drink when we were 15. Tony Galeta Profiles | Facebook Like a concert pianist, Tony Galeota has spent his life honing a single skill since he was a teenager. Meet me in Africa for a cup of coffee tomorrow.. She's forgiven me, for the most part. Born on June 3, 1924 at Hartford. Anthony Galeota Profiles | Facebook CAKEGATE 2023: Bad Bunny's Restaurant Accused of Gobbling Birthday Girl's Cake, Neighborhood Nazi Jon Minadeo Peddles Hate by the Minute, Sen. Rubio's Permanent Daylight Savings Bill Sees Light of Day Once More, NFL Legend Ray Lewis Joins World Jai-Alai League Board of Directors, Affordable New "Micro-Units" Slated for Little River, Edgewater. ), Right about the time my last film was coming out, he emailed me and said, I did a jailbreak from Panama, traveled to Costa Rica, on to Cuba and then got repatriated to Moscow Im ready to do the movie, Russell says. Get the latest updates in news, food, music and culture, and receive special offers direct to your inbox. "This country is corrupt. This story has been shared 173,716 times. "This case has had a big impact here," says Jos Otero, a reporter for Panamanian newspaper La Prensa. But the men kept in touch as Russell pursued other projects, with Tarzan sending random messages such as Christmas greetings until he finally sent the email the filmmaker had been awaiting (although he couldnt have guessed the other crazy details in the communication. "Their connections were bigger than ours," he says. and help keep the future of New Times, Use of this website constitutes acceptance of our, From Porky's to Panamanian Prison: Web Extra. I had kind of, little by little, put the word out to everybody among the cops, all the law enforcement side as well as among the crooks and said, Gotta meet Tony, gotta meet Tony, gotta meet Tony knowing that he was the only guy who really knew what happened. "The investigation was so poorly handled and rushed," says Otero, the journalist. If any official asks you to pay for anything, please report them.". But when the house of cards tumbles, John . Tarzan, got his first job in America as an enforcer for the Gambino crime family. They were all together when Tony worked for the Russin mobsters in Porky's club as its manager. "But I did it for my child.". He was, after all, working with an American playboy in Miami and a fugitive Cuban spy to procure this submarine. He called his cartel contacts and arranged to meet them in the pickup area of the Madrid train station. Police repeatedly raided the club, yet Galeota escaped unscathed every time. "We were like: 'We want to get the fuck out of here. "There was no transportation, no cops, no nothing," he says. The submarine request, which came from Yester on behalf of the cartel, was not as outrageous as it now sounds. Moreover, trafficking prostitutes and drugs and involvement in organized crime are some serious charges.". Anthony Galeota (right) poses with Ludwig "Tarzan" Fainberg inside the Doll House weeks before their arrest. The Marin Post They were concerned that Tarzan and his arriviste colleagues in crime would merge with Cuban mobsters who already used brutal, bloody force to rule Miamis underworld and create a sort of supergroup of criminality. Tony is my friend, and well always love each other. Then once he sent me this crazy email like, Holy s***! Advertisement. Tony went on the run with the money the drug cartel provided up front, however, as authorities closed in - meaning the deal never happened, Tarzan got deported, Juan was (temporarily) convicted on drug charges and Tony became a fugitive not just from justice but from the hit that was put out on his head. Behind him, 12-foot-high fences topped with spools of barbed wire frame a muddy soccer field. New Times wrote about Galeota's plight last year ("From Porky's to Hell," October 4, 2012), even visiting him in La Joya prison, a crumbling concrete complex in the jungle where inmates kill each other with impunity. Director Tiller Russell tells DailyMail.com that hed heard rumblings and rumors about the insane deal, but it was about seven years ago when he first got a concrete lead about Tarzan and his cronies. The charismatic teenager sold the stolen suits or electronics at strip clubs or used-car lots. But it bored him. Yester told the Colombians that theyd have to pay $35 million for the vessel, even though Tarzan had talked the price down to $5.5 million plus just $600 for a crew to pilot it to Colombia. When Bill Seidle died, Galeota knew the club's days were numbered. But the deal never happened. Tony Galeota's age is expected to be 52. He decked out the Doll House with five upstairs rooms equipped with king-size beds, mirrors, lube, condoms, and showers, and brought in dozens of Colombian women, who could earn $120 split with the club for an hour of sex. Miami's underworld may still be seedy, but it has outsourced much of its shadiness to nearby Third-World countries such as Panama. By the time he was 18, he had been arrested seven times for armed robbery and assault, he says. With dark hair and pale, wide-set eyes, teenage Tony resembled a stocky Frank Sinatra. Michael Galeota Obituary (1984 - 2016) - Pontotoc, MS - Pontotoc Progress They tried to squeeze Fainberg to get Seidle. The gig introduced him to a lifelong vice. Thanks to a successful appeal, Almeida served only 18 months for his part in the sub caper. Theyre nice guys [the cartel members], and I didnt ask what they needed the submarine for, Tarzan tells The Post, speaking on a crackling phone connection from Russia. Tarzan and one of his partners, Fat Tony Galeota, had opened a strip club in Panama similar to a previous enterprise in Miami called Porkys but they landed behind bars in Central America. Miami playboy, Russian gangster and Cuban spy tried to buy submarine And, above all, selling it. Tony Galeota: From Running Porky's, Miami's Most Notorious Strip Joint "When you're in La Joya for two years, you get used to that environment," Galeota says. The 43-year-old is shaped like a mini refrigerator: short and squat, with a shaved head and wide-set emerald eyes. We both understand that.". "My father wasn't in the mob, but his friends were," Tony says. Galeota and his "girls" in the Doll House, before the bust. Unfortunately, Galeota's defense isn't as simple as quoting strippers, says his lawyer, Guillermina McDonald. Tony Kaleta. Sign Up. Anthony Jr. was taken to a juvenile detention center that wasn't much better. Again, the charges were dropped. Although he admits that "running around whoring and casinoing wasn't worth it," he can't promise to be faithful to the woman who has stood beside him. Tony Galeota Age And Family. While Kristy was still in the States, he lived with five of his Colombian prostitutes. On June 19, 2011, Tony and his oldest son, 15-year-old Anthony Jr., had just sat down to eat wings in the Doll House office around 11 p.m. when the gold-painted doors burst open. "I thought I would kick up my heels together like 'Oh my God, I'm finally out,'" he says. He ogled the women standing on corners in their underwear and high heels. local news and culture, Michael E. Miller A bartender characterized Porkys as the kind of place where you could get killed. Babushka was so notorious that FBI agents who described Tarzan as a matre d for criminals bugged the booths there. Use tab to navigate through the menu items. New laws effectively outlaw brothels such as the Doll House, permit or not but if Galeota walks with no convictions, it will surely embarrass officials trying to make it look like they're cleaning up the industry. I flew to a little island near St. Petersburg, met with a retired Russian admiral, and he took me to the navy base, says Tarzan. Russian mobsters learned about their comrade's successful venture, and adopted the club as a virtual office. The gig introduced him to a lifelong vice. "I lived it up in Miami," he says. The year before, his father helped him land a job as a wedding DJ. The last one locked the door. Im gonna see them in f***ing hell when I arrive there., Russell says the fugitive is probably one of the most fascinating human beings Ive ever been in a room with., He adds: Theres five other films you couldve made about his life and life experiences, and yet he was charming and cultured and funny and also, then, on a dime deadly serious, not somebody that you trifle with. Furious and Busted Rick Cedar steals radios to support his family. "There was probably a lot more fun going on at Porky's than we even knew of," says one Hialeah police officer who asked not to be identified. The irony is not lost on Galeota that after a life of crime in Miami, he was arrested in Panama just as he was going legit. Guards with machine guns man rusty metal towers. independent local journalism in Miami. So looking back on it and all the hijinks, from being smuggled in to a Panamanian prison to crossing paths with the FSB in Moscow to being met in a Porsche Cayenne by Tony Yester and driving away thinking: Okay, the CIA, DEA, FBI and US Marshals have been looking for this guy for 25 years, and Im in his car by myself with no notion of where were going or when were coming back. In retrospect, its like, Im a moron, but at the time I was full-throttle chase the story., Of the finished product Operation Odessa, he says: Hopefully, its a rocknroll thrill ride into the underworld, where you get a passport to a life and lifestyle and characters that you didnt even imagine existed much less having a ringside seat with them., The comments below have not been moderated, By And he hopes to open a place in Fort Lauderdale when he's back, Just not a strip club. All the services here are free. On Friday, May 17, Galeota got word that the judge had also dismissed the drug charge because of lack of evidence. Bonnie also shoplifted booze to sustain her hard drinking habit. Galeota is one of several Americans locked up here. Galeota jumped at the deal. "It is with tremendous heartfelt sadness to announce the passing of Michael James. We did outsmart the FBI, we did outsmart the DEA, we even did outsmart the court, Tarzan says in the film. See Photos. They went Maserati shopping by helicopter so they could look at the cars from the air. Facilitating it. The two were married in 1994 at a wedding full of mobsters. Inmates are fed bread and cheese for breakfast and rice (sometimes beans) for lunch and dinner. He needed some help," he recalls. "I'm not a religious person, but I believe I went to jail because I was living like a rock star -- running around with all these women, drinking a bottle of vodka every day for two years," he says. Then an old friend showed up. It was like this super weird, incredibly sketchy circumstance that we came together in, Russell tells DailyMail.com of his visit to the Mad Max-like prison where at night they lock the gates. "It was puppy love," he says. That didnt stop Russell from trying to get them on board with doing a film about the submarine deal. La Joya is flush with contraband, from cell phones and cigarettes to marijuana and handguns all of it brought in with the complicity of corrupt guards. "They knew some Russian guy named Tarzan who had just opened up a club in Miami called Porky's. You could not mislead him in any way or you could tell that the consequences could be serious, but I loved him. "There were beautiful girls, just walking the streets, giving blowjobs for $10 or $15.". But Galeota's plan would soon go catastrophically wrong. "My father wasn't in the mob, but his friends were," Tony says. As Fainberg and a wealthy Cuban-American named Juan Almeida sat in the Federal Detention Center downtown, and newspapers across the country splashed the sensational story of the drug submarine scheme, Galeota focused on staying out of court. Galeota's wife Kristy comments "Porky's was definitely a place you could get killed." Find your friends on Facebook. Join the New Times community and help support I never got a straight answer [about why he was in jail there], says Russell. We've been here for two years!' "I brought in music and women," Galeota says. Galeota may not be a good man, but he is brutally honest. Instead of celebrating, he walked through the scuzzy neighbourhood until he found a shabby motel. When Galeota arrived in Miami in the summer of 1991, the city was awash in coke, crack, and drug cash. He paid for her to secretly get an abortion. A tattoo of an Italian Mafioso emerges from an extra-large sleeveless T-shirt. "They murdered a guy in here a couple of days ago," Tony Galeota says. Catherine says she slept with customers because she needed the money to support her family. Panamanian police had been casing the Doll House, Moulin Rouge, and another joint, called Havana Club, for weeks. He was hilarious and charming and garrulous, and it was as if hed stepped right out of a Scorsese movie, Russell says, adding: You know whats the funny thing people dont know about docs? As chronicled in the new Showtime documentary Operation Odessa, the trio of cutthroat outlaws collaborated in 1996 to procure the ultimate weapon for Colombias money-minting Cali cocaine cartel: a military submarine. Prostitution was so common at Porky's that the club had fixed places and prices, Galeota says. Panama became Galeota's personal paradise. Controlling it. Half an hour later, Galeota was guarding the door when a car rolled up with the window down. He knew that the owners of a local strip club called Moulin Rouge David Fridman and Jake Lita (an Israeli wanted by German police on human-trafficking charges) had a business offer for the duo. independent local journalism in Miami. But Tarzan a seasoned wheeler-dealer, strip club owner and former mob enforcer took it in his stride and went back to his partners with the response. Murdaugh is heckled as he leaves court, Moment teenager crashes into back of lorry after 100mph police race, Ken Bruce finishes his 30-year tenure as host of BBC Radio 2, Family of a 10-month-old baby filmed vaping open up, Missing hiker buried under snow forces arm out to wave to helicopter, Insane moment river of rocks falls onto Malibu Canyon in CA, Fleet-footed cop chases an offender riding a scooter, Ukrainian soldier takes out five tanks with Javelin missiles. See Photos. Yester, a highly regarded affiliate of multiple cocaine cartels, opened European markets for Colombian narco-terrorist Pablo Escobar and went on the run in 1990 after being charged with cocaine trafficking. They were very compliant to everything we asked of them, said McElhaney. Sixteen months later, the two men have yet to appear in court. A deep bass line rattled customers' chests as they downed overpriced drinks. A judge eventually dropped the human trafficking charge, but Galeota still rotted in his sordid cell alongside insects the size of small dogs. Almeida, back in Moscow, trying to work out yet another deal and not realizing that this one had already soured, managed to temporarily elude arrest. Instead, he's trapped in a labyrinthine legal system, alone and unable to speak Spanish. Tarzan and Tony went so far as to gain access to a Soviet naval base and be taken on a tour of a submarine potentially for sale, even cajoling Russian military officials to pose for photos - which they used to prove to the Colombians that a deal could be brokered (and which are shown in the film). Explore More. "It is with tremendous heartfelt sadness to announce the passing of Michael James Galeota," Jan. 10, reads a statement on a Go Fund Me page, created by Galeota's family to raise money for his burial. Galeota believes that his arrest has little to do with a renewed commitment to the law in Panama. We break down the best movies and series to watch in November in theaters and streaming. But the story of how the documentary got made is nearly as crazy as the caper plot itself. Sixteen months later, the two men have yet to appear in court. The bartender hid in the bathroom and dialed 911. "There was no transportation, no cops, no nothing," he says. Facilitating it. His attorney has warned him that prosecutors will likely appeal, so he plans to stay in Panama until his case is resolved. The 43-year-old is shaped like a mini refrigerator: short and squat, with a shaved head and wide-set emerald eyes. "It is with tremendous heartfelt sadness to announce the passing of Michael James Gal "It's not an easy choice," she says. He was talking to Fainberg about a murder he'd witnessed in Porky's parking lot. By then, the club's criminal clientele and Fainberg's increasingly lavish lifestyle had raised eyebrows. Michael Galeota, who starred on the Disney Channel's "The Jersey" died Sunday, according to Variety. Prostitutes were everywhere at the weddings, and when Tony asked another employee where they came from, the older kid took him to Manhattan's infamous West End. Update information for Tony Galeota . Facebook gives people the power. It was apparent they had what appeared to be narcotics and after we did the test they had bales on board of pure cocaine, said Boatswains Mate Omar Castro with the U.S. Coast Guard. Documentary Drama When Miami mobster Tony Galeota opens a club in Panama City, the competition frames him for drug dealing and human trafficking. He soon finds himself wanting to be a mobster, and starts running errands for them. Tony Galeota's shaved head fairly glows with nostalgia as he remembers the days when you might have strolled into his Hialeah bar in search of commercial sex, or maybe to get beaten up or swindled . And she launched drunken tirades at Tony after baseball games, no matter how well the all-star shortstop performed. The Dolls House, Via Espaia Road, Panama City, Panam, "They murdered a guy in here a couple of days ago" Tony Galeota, Tony Galeota: From Running Porky's, Miami's Most Notorious Strip Joint, to Rotting in a Panamanian Jail. she scoffs. The young mobster needed to lay low, so the Pacciones sent him south to a strip club called the Porthole Pub in Pompano Beach. And like the Italian-American crooner, he loved women a little too much. Guards with machine guns man rusty metal towers. The heavy-set Italian even signed a release. Tony Galeota Profiles | Facebook Galeota was crammed into a sweltering holding cell with 150 others. And there was absolutely no bullshit. Miami Mobster Take Down - YouTube "I couldn't take all the people who wanted to come.". While on routine patrol, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection plane spotted a suspicious speed boat. "I was just numb.". He offered protection and gave Galeota $200. When crews were launched to investigate, the suspected smugglers threw several packages into the water. South Florida's independent Galeota also found himself in the back of an unmarked FBI car. His father, Arnold, was a strait-laced sales manager but a distant and disapproving dad. "My wife can say she has regrets, but that's bullshit," he says. We didn't even have to have sex unless we wanted to," says a Colombian stripper named Catherine. Galeota's enemies say that a life of sin has finally caught up with the flesh-peddler. Moreover, trafficking prostitutes and drugs and involvement in organized crime are some serious charges.". one of the kids shouted as he pulled a handkerchief over his face and wildly swung a revolver. The American says he's giving up the strip club and brothel businesses. When Galeota stood up, he checked his T-shirt for bullet holes, but found none. Banks seized all seven of his apartments. "They murdered a guy in here a couple of days ago," Tony Galeota says. Thats how they eventually uncovered the plot to sell a submarine to the Cali cartel, orchestrated by Tarzan, exotic car importer Juan Almeida and Nelson Tony Yester, a Cuban immigrant believed to be a trained intelligence operative who remains an international fugitive to this day. It was 1990, and Galeota transformed the place by wiring in subwoofers and bringing in New York dancers. He was very serious and said he would look into it. At the entrance to La Joya, ant hills and wasp nests surround a wooden sign. Become a member to support the independent voice of South Florida When Seidle died in 2008, Porky's political protection followed the 82-year-old to the grave.

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