Juan, Tarzan and law enforcement insisted there was no way hed agree to participate in the documentary. local Journalism in South Florida. 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. Sign Up. Nobody was impressed more than Kristy Sharpe, an 18-year-old waitress from Orlando with blond hair, blue eyes, and lightly freckled skin. "But she's never going to forget. Galeota has seen several murders. "These guys were into just about everything," Assistant U.S. Attorney Diana Fernandez said at the time. "When you're in La Joya for two years, you get used to that environment," Galeota says. Russell did as he was told and flew to the appointed city in Africa; as soon as he walked into his hotel room, the phone rang and he was instructed to be downstairs in five minutes, where Tony whisked him off in a Porsche Cayenne and they spent several surreal days together; Tony showed the director his Russian fighter jet, which had $5million in the cockpit as the fugitives getaway plan, and told his part of the story. In hand-painted white lettering, it reads, "Dear visitors. A deep bass line rattled customers' chests as they downed overpriced drinks. When he discovered he was about to be subpoenaed, he withdrew $2,500 from the bank and boarded a two-week Caribbean cruise. So we met with a realtor, got high, and Tony got stupid with money. Panamanian newspapers put "Operation Fiesta" on the front page as prosecutors alleged Galeota was part of an international crime ring. And he hopes to open a place in Fort Lauderdale when he's back. As for his career, his only oath is that he won't let his sons follow his example. "It was puppy love," he says. Locked Up Abroad 151M subscribers Miami mobster Tony Galeota is a strip-club supremo. Log In. Guards with machine guns man rusty metal towers. The entire situation sounds like something dreamed up for a Miami Vice-inspired action thriller, but it actually happened in the 1990s and the trio came very close to pulling it off before one of them pocketed the cartels millions and went on the run. "My father wasn't in the mob, but his friends were," Tony says. He told them he could get them the submarine for $35million, but said hes need the money in installments; when they gave him the first $10million, he kept the money for himself and disappeared. "Running a club in that neighborhood, win or lose, you've got to fight.". In the second interdiction, a Customs plane spotted another suspicious boat off the coast of Panama on August 28th. This time, I'm innocent.". 17:57 GMT 13 Mar 2018. Log in or sign up for Facebook to connect with friends, family and people you know. Panama had gone from paradise to purgatory. She's forgiven me, for the most part. Eventually, he moved two dozen ladies to Panama City. Kristy was able to pay a lawyer $500 to get her son released, but there was no bond for Galeota's drug offense. 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. When crews were launched to investigate, the suspected smugglers threw several packages into the water. 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. "My wife could have left me. 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. 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. Apparently knowing all too well how things would shake out, Yester decided to screw his partners and take off for Amsterdam with the first $10 million. He also owned the Russian restaurant Babushka, which was a magnet for snowbirding criminals from his homeland. "My father wasn't in the mob, but his friends were," Tony says. "It was a nightmare in there. It's not quite Shawshank Redemption, but when Tony Galeota walked out of a Panama City jail cell May 23, it was still a small serving of justice. We both understand that.". 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. It was a Foxtrot-class submarine, or Project 641 as the Soviets called it. Inside, the bar is still littered with half-empty bottles of Chivas Regal. Sign Up. ", McDonald has succeeded, however, in chipping away at the case, persuading a judge three weeks ago to drop the trafficking charge on a technicality. , updated Meanwhile, the task force had gotten wind of the bizarre submarine plan; not only had they wiretapped Tarzan, but they had also inserted an undercover agent into the operation an agent who appears in the documentary after undergoing an extensive makeup disguise because he continues to work undercover cases involving the Russian mob. Even then, however, he couldn't sleep. Behind him, 12-foot-high fences topped with spools of barbed wire frame a muddy soccer field. Anthony Galeota was born October 17, 1968, on Long Island. We've been here for two years!' ", - Tony Galeota: From Running Porky's, Miami's Most Notorious Strip Joint, to Rotting in a Panamanian Jail, - Sex and Drugs in the Champagne Room: The Truth About Porky's and Other Miami Strip Clubs. "I want to go legit when I get out, but if the economy is bad, I might go back to the industry," he says. This is a guy that the FBI went after for years but could never get him. 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. she scoffs. Prostitution in Miami had become too risky, he decided, but overseas sex tourism was soaring. One can imagine they did plenty of drugs.. His father, Arnold, was a strait-laced sales manager but a distant and disapproving dad. Make a one-time donation today for as little as $1. We did outsmart the FBI, we did outsmart the DEA, we even did outsmart the court, Tarzan says in the film. Luckier still, a powerful Colombian inmate named Mauricio Ramrez recognized Galeota from his restaurant. The Coast Guard said the eight-member crew cooperated and was taken into custody. He called me in two days and he asked me, do we want the submarine with missiles or without missiles? says Tarzan. And he hopes to open a place in Fort Lauderdale when he's back, Just not a strip club. 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 Advertisement. In court statements and interviews with New Times, they said Galeota gave them contracts to sign, cell phones and computers to use, and apartments in which to live. Again, Tony's friends in New York told him where to go. (A New York Police Department spokesman says records from that far back aren't available.) Tony Galeto. All the main players involved appear on camera and share their stories, including law enforcement, from which the documentary takes its name; Operation Odessa was formed as a joint task force in the 1990s as American authorities worried that Colombian cartels would join together with Russian organized crime to pair drug money with Soviet military hardware. But he was too shell-shocked to take up his attorney's offer for a ride to a nice hotel. They taught him the rules, the most important of which Galeota took to heart: "You can have your girlfriends on the side," he remembers hearing, "but never leave your wife.". Michael Galeota, who starred on the Disney Channel's "The Jersey" died Sunday, according to Variety. The 43-year-old is shaped like a mini refrigerator: short and squat, with a shaved head and wide-set emerald eyes. The year before, his father helped him land a job as a wedding DJ. But bloodshed would follow them to Miami. But when the house of cards tumbles, John . "My wife can say she has regrets, but that's bullshit," he says. But Tony had darker secrets. Indeed, Havana Club has already reopened. She is a high-powered attorney who has defended two former presidents in corruption cases, but even she hasn't been able to get Galeota out of jail yet. "That clean, business-friendly, postcard-Panama bullshit is just a faade," Galeota says. But he insists that, for once, he has done nothing wrong. He was, after all, working with an American playboy in Miami and a fugitive Cuban spy to procure this submarine. "My wife is never going to completely trust me. The charismatic teenager sold the stolen suits or electronics at strip clubs or used-car lots. Then she'd charge my friends $50 each," he says. "They murdered a guy in here a couple of days ago," Tony Galeota says. Panama became Galeota's personal paradise. 4:00AM. Galeota is no angelic Andy Dufresne, the main character in Shawshank who serves two decades behind bars for a crime he didn't commit. 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. Sometimes we get a little excited when we find the amount of cocaine we found, said Castro. "I'm used to getting my water from a rain bucket, not hot from the tap." More at IMDbPro Contact Info: View agent, publicist, legal on IMDbPro. Galeota's wife Kristy comments "Porky's was definitely a place you could get killed." We break down the best movies and series to watch in November in theaters and streaming. "Everybody give me your money!" The FBI swooped in January 21, surrounding the club and arresting Fainberg. 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). It wasn't until he ordered some Italian food and a cold Guinness that he finally felt like he was free. "I was just numb.". "My family didn't care; they took it," Galeota says of the stolen goods. The young mobster needed to lay low, so the Pacciones sent him south to a strip club called the Porthole Pub in Pompano Beach. Guards with machine guns man rusty metal towers. Galeota and his "girls" in the Doll House, before the bust. His attorney has warned him that prosecutors will likely appeal, so he plans to stay in Panama until his case is resolved. But it bored him. The fear was well founded, considering what went down when Tarzan linked up with Cuban outlaws Juan Almeida and Nelson Tony Yester. The two were married in 1994 at a wedding full of mobsters. "But I've always paid for everything, either with stitches in my head, concussions, or jail time. Galeota was crammed into a sweltering holding cell with 150 others. But Monday morning, when it came time to walk out of La Joya, there was no vehicle waiting. "Another night at Porky's, another shooting," he remembers now from his prison cell in Panama. It was 1990, and Galeota transformed the place by wiring in subwoofers and bringing in New York dancers. And last year, Yester was finally arrested in Rome on charges unrelated to the submarine while en route to a wedding. I had a friend of mine living in St. Petersburg, and I said, Misha, tell me something, Tarzan real name Ludwig Fainberg says in a heavy Russian accent. 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 didn't stay long. 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. According to the Coast Guard: It first took place north of the Gulf of Uraba. "I just watched Luis blow a guy away," Galeota heard himself say on tape. "Luis pulled out a .38 and shot the guy in the chest. Get the latest updates in news, food, music and culture, and receive special offers direct to your inbox. ", Coast Guard Offloads More Than $93 Million In Cocaine, Miami Beach. When he was 16, he knocked up his 15-year-old girlfriend at Hauppauge High School. When he was 16, he knocked up his 15-year-old girlfriend at Hauppauge High School. Is this possible, to buy a military submarine - used one? And he said, What a question! Tony Galeto. This story has been shared 121,048 times. S10 E10 - Miami Mobster Take Down Tony Galeota is framed for drug trafficking in Panama City. Then they pushed play on a cassette deck. Galeota's enemies say that a life of sin has finally caught up with the flesh-peddler. "Now I'm living in hell.". The Porky's party nearly came to a sudden end in early 1997. He offered protection and gave Galeota $200. . Bonnie also shoplifted booze to sustain her hard drinking habit. Galeota is one of several Americans locked up here. None of them ever appeared in the newspapers, but Hialeah police records confirm there were at least ten shootings at Porky's during Galeota's tenure. They finally fled the country this past July, leaving Tony alone. I said, Thank you, Cali cartel. His father, Arnold, was a strait-laced sales manager but a distant and disapproving dad. Tony Galeota Tony Galeota. Galeota's imprisonment abroad marks the end of one of Miami's most outrageous eras, when Russian and Colombian cartels stocked strip clubs with cheap prostitutes and cheaper cocaine. Somewhere between his native Ukraine, Israel, and Russia, he'd shed his trademark long hair and changed his name to Alon Bar. GALEOTA, Joseph A., Sr. Joseph A. Galeota Sr., 86, of Ashford CT, died on Wednesday (January 26, 2011) at Windham Hospital from congestive heart failure. More than anything, Galeota is grateful that his family kept faith in him. But in South Florida, he was once a strip club king. Locked up in one of the world's worst prisons, Tony has to prove his innocence and attempt an audacious escape. 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. We've been here for two years!' 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. A man deeply embedded with Escobar's Medelln cartel, Tony had a notorious reputation as "a really bad guy"he was once caught with 41 passports, and featured on his own 1999 episode of America's. There is no rehabilitation here," he says. Then an old friend showed up. His name was Tony Galeota, he said, and he had run Porky's for 18 years before being locked up in Panama's worst prison for a crime he didn't commit. The crew boarded the 165-foot Panamanian-flagged coastal freighter Hope II. Because of his age, he escaped with six months' probation. Tony Galeota has a wife named Kristy Galeota, with whom he lives. When he was 16, he knocked up his 15-year-old girlfriend at Hauppauge High School. His mother, Bonnie Gellilti, was "a bit of a criminal," Tony remembers. A tattoo of an Italian Mafioso emerges from an extra-large sleeveless T-shirt. Can he prove his innocence and escape? His nightmare began in June of 2011, when police raided his Panama City strip club and arrested him and his Ukrainian partner for trafficking women and selling drugs. The trio convened in Russia, and snapshots of them aboard the football-field-size sub, posing with the captain, hamming it up with one another, were shown to cartel members to make clear that the submarine sale closed with all parties naked in a bathhouse was for real. Make a one-time donation today for as little as $1. Indeed, Tony would turn Porky's into a moneymaking machine. The 43-year-old is shaped like a mini refrigerator: short and squat, with a shaved head and wide-set emerald eyes. "I lived it up in Miami," he says. With dark hair and pale, wide-set eyes, teenage Tony resembled a stocky Frank Sinatra. Its a great success overall. SO I started with the cops and I had been kind of circling the others without knowing if it was really possible or not. Anthony Galeota was born October 17, 1968, on Long Island. I definitely want his number and so I began chasing it from there and actually jumped on a plane, went down and smuggled myself into this Panamanian prison to meet with him.. ), The narcotics charge, however, still stands despite little evidence linking Galeota to the drugs. As he contemplates the question, Galeota watches his fellow inmates kick a soccer ball across La Joya's putrid playground. But their courtship was cut short. Everybody wanted to make money. Tony Galeota. 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. "We were like: 'We want to get the fuck out of here. ", After bribing half the guards at La Joya, Galeota was taken to an immigration holding center in Panama City where he and four codefendants were kept for four more days. As Shea tried to pull the panties off one of the dancers, he heard police sirens in the distance and bolted. "I don't care how strong you are; that's going to affect your marriage," she says. Thanks to a successful appeal, Almeida served only 18 months for his part in the sub caper. Days go by without water, and when it does arrive, it's turbid sludge from a nearby river. "I've been in this business my whole life. As far as he was concerned, he owned the military base. The Coast Guard said four suspected smugglers were taken into custody and 32 bales of cocaine were found in the water. Like a concert pianist, Tony Galeota has spent his life honing a single skill since he was a teenager. And like the Italian-American crooner, he loved women a little too much. Behind him, 12-foot-high fences topped with spools of barbed wire frame a muddy soccer field. and help keep the future of New Times, Use of this website constitutes acceptance of our, running Miami's most infamous strip club, Porky's, Tony Galeota: From Running Porky's, Miami's Most Notorious Strip Joint, to Rotting in a Panamanian Jail, Sex and Drugs in the Champagne Room: The Truth About Porky's and Other Miami Strip Clubs. Even then, however, he couldn't sleep. "Bill was one of the most influential people in Miami," Galeota says. It was a weeknight, and Porky's was washed in pale-pink neon light. Miami's underworld may still be seedy, but it has outsourced much of its shadiness to nearby Third-World countries such as Panama. "The investigation was so poorly handled and rushed," says Otero, the journalist. Join the New Times community and help support 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved, Texas man busted in death of DJ galpal found stuffed in suitcase in Colombia, Inside the luxe lives of El Chapo's sons including jailbird Ovidio Guzmn Lpez, Arizona officials say Mexican cartels control US border: 'Ticking time bomb', Passengers on Aeromexico flight crouch in fear as plane caught in cartel crossfire: video. There was a spate of murders, several police raids, and a federal drug-trafficking trial. 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. The message was that the cocaine traffickers would kill Yesters family members. "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. A kilo of cocaine in Panama costs much less - about $5,000 per. "This country is corrupt. Panamanian police had been casing the Doll House, Moulin Rouge, and another joint, called Havana Club, for weeks. He headed right to his beloved Miami, Florida. His school friends didn't believe him, so a few days later he sneaked out, stole his mom's minivan, and drove around the neighborhood loading up with other teens. Next time, I will steal it back from him., Tarzan (left) at the site of the submarine. Anthony Galeota (right) poses with Ludwig "Tarzan" Fainberg inside the Doll House weeks before their arrest. MICHAEL GALEOTA OBITUARY. Tony Gogetta. 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. Become a member to support the independent voice of South Florida Instead, they eat rice for lunch and dinner, drink dirty river water, and use a hole in the ground for a toilet. He answered only to property owner William Seidle, a U.S. Bankruptcy Court trustee who ran a chain of car dealerships. "We treated the women well.". "Whenever there is an American businessman involved in crime here in Panama, it becomes an important case. The lessons in crime didn't come fast enough for Galeota to stay out of trouble. 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. With dark hair and pale, wide-set eyes, teenage Tony resembled a stocky Frank Sinatra. Years later, Tarzan again found himself behind bars, this time in Panama; in fact, he was serving time in 2011 when Russell first approached him for the documentary. Find your friends on Facebook. Police again surrounded Porky's in the early hours of May 9, 2009. Join Facebook to connect with Anthony Galeota and others you may know. His father, Arnold, was a strait-laced sales manager but a distant and disapproving dad. But killings are common in Panama's worst prison, where the smell of raw sewage wafts over the yard, metal shackles hang from mouldy staircases, and overcrowded cells house nearly 3,500 of the Western Hemisphere's vilest murderers, rapists, and drug traffickers. Miami's independent source of A tattoo of an Italian Mafioso emerges from an extra-large sleeveless T-shirt. And, above all, selling it. Again, the charges were dropped. Even though Yester may have suspected that the cartel was after him, he couldnt help but try to get his hands on the remaining $25 million. Between the restaurant and the Doll House, he was making enough to retire in five years. A friend suggested Panama. Galeota's enemies say that a life of sin has finally caught up with the flesh-peddler. By then, the club's criminal clientele and Fainberg's increasingly lavish lifestyle had raised eyebrows. Galeota also found himself in the back of an unmarked FBI car. When traffickers balked at the price, Yester reminded them that it could hold 40 tons of cocaine and would pay for itself quickly. "It was a real moneymaker. June 4, 2013 His government protection would evaporate, the Doll House would be raided, his investments would be stolen, and he would be arrested. Documentary Drama When Miami mobster Tony Galeota opens a club in Panama City, the competition frames him for drug dealing and human trafficking. He was 31. "A family type thing, like an ale house with wings and beer," he says. His father, Arnold, was a strait-laced sales manager but a distant and disapproving dad. "She would use shoe polish to change our driver's licenses so we could go to clubs and drink when we were 15. "They shot him in the middle of the night," Galeota continues quietly, "and buried his body behind the pavilion.". The bartender hid in the bathroom and dialed 911. "We were doing fantastic, but Tarzan got bored and started living the life," Galeota explains. Facebook Email or phone Password Forgot account? View Tony Galeota's 1940 US census record to find family members, occupation details & more. "I brought in music and women," Galeota says. They were all together when Tony worked for the Russin mobsters in Porky's club as its manager. Galeota believes that his arrest has little to do with a renewed commitment to the law in Panama. Prosecutors accused him of providing prostitutes for his Russian friends, trafficking drugs, selling stolen cigarettes and liquor, and setting up arms deals for Russian and Colombian cocaine smugglers. 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.
