They finally fled the country this past July, leaving Tony alone. His father, Arnold, was a strait-laced sales manager but a distant and disapproving dad. Photo courtesy of Josh Weiss A prisoner poses with a gun smuggled into La Joya with help from guards. "They shot him in the middle of the night," Galeota continues quietly, "and buried his body behind the pavilion.". Then they pushed play on a cassette deck. "I lived it up in Miami," he says. They were all together when Tony worked for the Russin mobsters in Porky's club as its manager. And like the Italian-American crooner, he loved women a little too much. It was a lot of kind of romancing them and explaining to them, hey, this is your chance to tell your story on kind of a broad canvas. The bartender hid in the bathroom and dialed 911. But the deal never happened. 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. . Its Colombian dancers were in Panama on six-month tourist visas, weren't licensed as prostitutes, and weren't getting required weekly health checkups. Galeota's enemies say that a life of sin has finally caught up with the flesh-peddler. So if you wanna do it, the time is now, and essentially, its happening one way or another, so you might be the person to author your story. Russian immigrant Ludwig Fainberg, a.k.a. But instead of classical music, his specialty is sex. she scoffs. "They knew some Russian guy named Tarzan who had just opened up a club in Miami called Porky's. "I used to have to patch Tony up all the time," Kristy says. If he didnt give them the information, he was afraid that he would have gotten killed, and he was probably right., In the meantime, Yester may have been too in love with his eight-figure haul to really care and there was ultimately no retribution against his family. According to the Coast Guard: It first took place north of the Gulf of Uraba. Prosecutors say police never filed the necessary paperwork. A year later, it was $115,000 per month.". A judge eventually dropped the human trafficking charge, but Galeota still rotted in his sordid cell alongside insects the size of small dogs. 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). "But I did it for my child.". He called his cartel contacts and arranged to meet them in the pickup area of the Madrid train station. Tarzan, Almeida and Yester had previously teamed on multimillion-dollar deals for Colombian cocaine barons, snagging motorcycles and Kamov 32 military helicopters (with two rotors and capable of transporting 5,000 kilos of cocaine via hook). He was very serious and said he would look into it. Also read: Tony Galeota: From Running. "That clean, business-friendly, postcard-Panama bullshit is just a faade," Galeota says. There was nothing unusual about it. Facilitating it. But instead of classical music, his specialty is sex. Twice, American authorities had investigated Galeota. "There was no transportation, no cops, no nothing," he says. Behind him, 12-foot-high fences topped with spools of barbed wire frame a muddy soccer field. "Like me, he was a black sheep who could do nothing right.". While Kristy was still in the States, he lived with five of his Colombian prostitutes. More than anything, Galeota is grateful that his family kept faith in him. It was 1990, and Galeota transformed the place by wiring in subwoofers and bringing in New York dancers. Indeed, court records show that Seidle was a target of the federal wiretapping investigation. When he left to open a bona fide brothel in Panama, Galeota thought the country's lax prostitution laws would make him rich. Now the locals want to get rid of guys like Galeota too, as his case has drawn national attention to corruption and human rights abuses. When his dad lost his job, Tony paid the bills. Seidle was never charged with a crime. 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. And so with like five days prep I jumped on a plane, went to Miami, started courting the cops and the feds and the US attorneys and all the good guys, the law enforcement side of it their participation was instrumental in it, because theyre the ones that have all the evidentiary record and all the surveillance video and the photos and the wiretaps and all that stuff, most of which is the sort of visual skeleton to the film. Then she'd charge my friends $50 each," he says. Panama became Galeota's personal paradise. Get the latest updates in news, food, music and culture, and receive special offers direct to your inbox. Behind him, 12-foot-high fences topped with spools of barbed wire frame a muddy soccer field. He also owned the Russian restaurant Babushka, which was a magnet for snowbirding criminals from his homeland. Here, Galeota is just one of 500 prisoners crammed into a filthy cell block designed to hold 200 people. Michael Galeota, who starred on the Disney Channel's "The Jersey" died Sunday, according to Variety. 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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. Galeota's sheer size and mob connections are the only things keeping him from getting shivved in the dark. 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.. Miami's underworld may still be seedy, but it has outsourced much of its shadiness to nearby Third-World countries such as Panama. 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. And like the Italian-American crooner, he loved women a little too much. There is no rehabilitation here," he says. Two days later, he was transferred to La Joya a hellish cinder-block complex an hour outside of Panama City. On Friday, May 17, Galeota got word that the judge had also dismissed the drug charge because of lack of evidence. "Running a club in that neighborhood, win or lose, you've got to fight.". Prostitution in Miami had become too risky, he decided, but overseas sex tourism was soaring. ), The narcotics charge, however, still stands despite little evidence linking Galeota to the drugs. Although he knows he could receive the death penalty, the money is too tempting to resist. His mother, Bonnie Gellilti, was "a bit of a criminal," Tony remembers. SO I started with the cops and I had been kind of circling the others without knowing if it was really possible or not. 8:00AM. "I just watched Luis blow a guy away," Galeota heard himself say on tape. The Coast Guard said the eight-member crew cooperated and was taken into custody. 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? But killings are common in Panama's worst prison, where the smell of raw sewage wafts over the yard, metal shackles hang from moldy staircases, and overcrowded cells house nearly 3,500 of the Western Hemisphere's vilest murderers, rapists, and drug traffickers. But in South Florida, he was once a strip club king. Prostitution was so common at Porky's that the club had fixed places and prices, Galeota says. It is not known when he was born or his current age. "I was always looking for their approval," he says, "but I never got that. Log In. Ten million dollars really feels like 10 million dollars, he gushes in the movie. A narc I know called me with a tip and he said, This is the craziest true-crime caper Ive ever come across in my life. , updated He didn't stay long. He was, after all, working with an American playboy in Miami and a fugitive Cuban spy to procure this submarine. 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. The 43-year-old is shaped like a mini refrigerator: short and squat, with a shaved head and wide-set emerald eyes. "It was home to a lot of shrewd and nefarious characters.". See Photos. 17:57 GMT 13 Mar 2018. Nobody was impressed more than Kristy Sharpe, an 18-year-old waitress from Orlando with blond hair, blue eyes, and lightly freckled skin. All the services here are free. But the Doll House and Moulin Rouge remain closed. Tony is my friend, and well always love each other. The drugs will be turned over to the DEA. You could not mislead him in any way or you could tell that the consequences could be serious, but I loved him. 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. Tarzan was released from the Panamanian prison in around 2016 and has since built a side career out of playing tough guys in gangster flicks shot in Russia, where he now lives. Over the years, Galeota saw nearly a dozen shootings at Porky's, some of them fatal. Galeota believes that his arrest has little to do with a renewed commitment to the law in Panama. We've been here for two years!' "Thank God I'm out," he tells New Times in his first interview since his release. McDonald expects those will be dismissed as well, but not for months. He called me in two days and he asked me, do we want the submarine with missiles or without missiles? says Tarzan. On a crowded balcony overlooking La Joya, Galeota describes the past 16 months as a nightmare. The most audacious plot allegedly hatched in the back of Porky's was to purchase a former Soviet submarine for $5.5 million for a Colombian drug cartel so it could ship cocaine up the coast to California. In this real life Goodfellas tale, New York teen John Alite gets a job at his local Deli, a hangout for 'wise guys'. "I lived it up in Miami," he says. Controlling it. When Galeota stood up, he checked his T-shirt for bullet holes, but found none. ", "You hear that?" But all the cops found were five grams of weed, a bottle of Viagra, and some mysterious yellow pills. It was a caper, for sure., He says: Tarzan was the lynchpin to it, because it was his story. Everything here has a cost.". 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). "My father wasn't in the mob, but his friends were," Tony says. source of local news and culture, Michael E. Miller They tried to squeeze Fainberg to get Seidle. Running an underworld operation in Cocaine Cowboys-era Miami wasn't an easy gig. He was a big, big fish.". The heavy-set Italian even signed a release. Become a member to support the independent voice of South Florida Awards. They went Maserati shopping by helicopter so they could look at the cars from the air. The year before, his father helped him land a job as a wedding DJ. Galeota saw an opportunity. He broke it off with the woman, but his problems were only beginning. Michael Galeota, who starred on the Disney Channel's "The Jersey" died Sunday, according to Variety. "I've done a lot of shady things in the States," he admits. For 18 years, Galeota ran Porky's with the same punishing justice he learned from the mob and transformed it into Miami's most notorious whorehouse, where Russian gangsters and Cuban criminals spent millions on sex and drugs. I told Juan, I said, Hey. Tony Galeota Age And Family. State and local police launched an investigation in February 2009. local news and culture, Michael E. Miller When Kristy and their three sons finally arrived in June, the business became a family affair: His wife took over at Bongos, while Galeota concentrated on turning the club into a cash machine. When Galeota arrived in Miami in the summer of 1991, the city was awash in coke, crack, and drug cash. This looks great. . 16:56 GMT 13 Mar 2018 He could convince you that the sky was green." Three weeks after the Doll House raid, Kristy was working the bar at Bongos when three teenagers walked into the restaurant. Bonnie also shoplifted booze to sustain her hard drinking habit. Tony and Kristy were shocked and out of a job. independent local journalism in Miami. "It was puppy love," he says. I'm kind of stuck with it. Anthony Jr. was taken to a juvenile detention center that wasn't much better. Let me check.. He answered only to property owner William Seidle, a U.S. Bankruptcy Court trustee who ran a chain of car dealerships. But she insists that her husband's imprisonment has brought them closer. Anywhere other than La Joya, this news would be shocking. But Galeota's problems aren't completely behind him. Over the course of three months, undercover detectives made dozens of visits, tallying up a vivid snapshot of the club: "15 purchases of cocaine, four purchases of MDMA, one purchase of Xanax, one purchase of marijuana, 18 solicitations for prostitution, [and] 20 lewd acts.". Controlling it. 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. 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. Galeota's enemies say that a life of sin has finally caught up with the flesh-peddler. Guards with machine guns man rusty metal towers. With dark hair and pale, wide-set eyes, teenage Tony resembled a stocky Frank Sinatra. A 28-year-old English teacher named Tim Schrader agrees to smuggle eight kilos of heroin into the U.S. to solve his financial problems. "He had that guido effect on me," she says. "The first month, we had $15,000 in gross sales. As Shea tried to pull the panties off one of the dancers, he heard police sirens in the distance and bolted. Even then, however, he couldn't sleep. (A New York Police Department spokesman says records from that far back aren't available.) Like a concert pianist, Tony Galeota has spent his life honing a single skill since he was a teenager. Instead, Galeota admits he's done bad things, such as running Miami's most infamous strip club, Porky's, for years before moving to Panama and opening a brothel. With Fainberg locked up, Porky's was Galeota's plaything. Reborn behind bars. But Tony had darker secrets. 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. I have to tell you, all my enemies are dead, and Im happy, he says in the documentary. When Galeota arrived, his mobster reputation preceded him. In an instant, Galeota's meaty hand was around the customer's neck, shoving him outside. And there was absolutely no bullshit. Sixteen months later, the two men have yet to appear in court. Advertisement. In the meantime, he's spending time with his wife and kids. We were approximately 24-hours on board before we got to a hidden compartment, said Castro.There was a hidden compartment and once we opened it we found all the contraband.. Tarzan managed to get light punishment for his 1997 conviction; he rolled over on Almeida and spent 30 months behind bars before being deported to Israel, where his family had immigrated, in 1999. Here, Galeota is just one of 500 prisoners crammed into a filthy cell block designed to hold 200 people. Facebook Email or phone Password Forgot account? Police again surrounded Porky's in the early hours of May 9, 2009. It was February 2011, and he was preparing to open the Doll House, his own strip club in Panama. Research > Galeota > Tony Galeota. Prostitution is legal in Panama," he complains. "You see who wants to fuck your wife, who wants to rob you, and who your real friends are.". Moreover, trafficking prostitutes and drugs and involvement in organized crime are some serious charges.". "I want to go legit when I get out, but if the economy is bad, I might go back to the industry," he says. Instead, they eat rice for lunch and dinner, drink dirty river water, and use a hole in the ground for a toilet. This is a guy that the FBI went after for years but could never get him. It was this sort of legendary underworld myth, almost, that people had been talking about for, you know, 20 years., He tells DailyMail.com: In Moscow, I got a text from Tony that said, Youve talked to the waiters; you should come meet the chef. They'd use their connections with immigration officials to obtain visas and prostitution licenses and then give Tarzan and Tony 40 percent of the profits to run a new club, called the Doll House. 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. In the early 1990s, three friends set out to hustle the Russian mob, the Cali cartel and the DEA for the score of a lifetime. The guards leave at 5pm, and they just lock the gates, and its inmate rule at night, he says, explaining that he bribed a guard to get him in and out of the jail. But instead of classical music, his specialty is sex. Galeota's wife Kristy comments "Porky's was definitely a place you could get killed." 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. See Photos. Log in or sign up for Facebook to connect with friends, family and people you know. The dead and dying are piled into wheelbarrows and left by the front gate until guards arrive in the morning. "Bill was one of the most influential people in Miami," Galeota says. The eight crew members aboard the Hope II and the vessel were taken into custody and will be turned over to U.S. officials for further investigation. Its our mission down there besides search and rescue. Panama's judicial system is outdated and overburdened, she says. In hand-painted white lettering, it reads, "Dear visitors. By now, she knows of his many infidelities, including that he lived and slept with some of the girls at the Doll House. Join the New Times community and help support independent Coast Guard members who seized the cocaine said this is what their jobs are all about. And twice they had given up. "We went there and we couldn't believe what we saw," says Josh Weiss, a former DJ at Porky's and one of Galeota's closest friends. 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. 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. 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. "I was 16 years old and amazed," he says. They arrested 18 suspects, including Galeota, several strippers, and most employees. "Many times, I worried about him getting killed. 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. Galeota is not exactly repentant. A poster on the wall advertises "Lesby Show: 2 Girls per Person" for $350. "It was a nightmare in there.". Log in or sign up for Facebook to connect with friends, family and people you know. It continued at another local strip club, called Quarterbacks Playmates Lounge. "It was a real moneymaker. 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. Make a one-time donation today for as little as $1. The domestic bliss lasted only a couple of weeks. "It was a very violent atmosphere," he says. In the meantime, he's spending time with his wife and kids. Next time, I will steal it back from him., Tarzan (left) at the site of the submarine. independent local journalism in Miami. But when the house of cards tumbles, John . Like a real-life godfather, Galeota weathered it all. Instead, he says competitors pulled government strings to screw him. He headed right to his beloved Miami, Florida. He might have sold them the submarine, taken the money and walked away with the money.. Galeota is no angelic Andy Dufresne, the main character in Shawshank who serves two decades behind bars for a crime he didn't commit. 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. "If you like to eat chocolate and you live in a chocolate factory, you're going to eat chocolate," he says. As he sweated in jail, Galeota's Panamanian empire crumbled. Log In or Sign Up Tonia Galeota See Photos Antonio Galeota See Photos Tony Galeota See Photos Toni Galea See Photos Toni Colletto See Photos Toni Torres Galea So I was literally stepping over dead bodies of the people who had been shanked and stuff over the course of the night.. "Then they'd tell me: 'They are as good as dead.'". When he heard that his old partner in crime from Porky's had moved to Panama, he flew in to meet with Galeota. I never got a straight answer [about why he was in jail there], says Russell. Guards with machine guns man rusty metal towers. local Journalism in South Florida. 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. He ogled the women standing on corners in their underwear and high heels. A sign on the latter reads, "District Attorney for Drugs: Do Not Enter." "We were like: 'We want to get the fuck out of here. We have a lot of laughs about it now," he says. "My family didn't care; they took it," Galeota says of the stolen goods. All he needed now were the prostitutes. A tattoo of an Italian Mafioso emerges from an extra-large sleeveless T-shirt. "Now I'm living in hell.". Sheila Flynn For Dailymail.com Kristy and his sons hid in a shabby, poorly protected office. Now the stranger-than-fiction story is brought to life in new documentary Operation Odessa, a film thats closer to a roller-coaster ride than anything else and premieres on Showtime March 31. Dancers with names like Baby Doll, Tipsie, Trixie, and Crme offered to have sex with the cops for as little as $150, court records show. Get the latest updates in news, food, music and culture, and receive special offers direct to your inbox. Follow this journalist on Twitter @MikeMillerMiami. As the authorities closed in, they picked up Juan and Tarzan, but they couldnt find Tony and neither could the cartel. 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. Tony Galeota. The year before, his father helped him land a job as a wedding DJ. Anthony Galeota was born October 17, 1968, on Long Island. "No one can tell us how long he will be in there," she says. Locked up in one of the world's worst prisons, Tony has to prove his innocence and attempt an audacious escape. The 43-year-old is shaped like a mini refrigerator: short and squat, with a shaved head and wide-set emerald eyes. He paid for her to secretly get an abortion. His mother, Bonnie Gellilti, was "a bit of a criminal," Tony remembers. And she launched drunken tirades at Tony after baseball games, no matter how well the all-star shortstop performed. He paid for her to secretly get an abortion. People named Tony Galeota Find your friends on Facebook Log in or sign up for Facebook to connect with friends, family and people you know. S10 E10 Miami Mobster Take Down. "It is with tremendous heartfelt sadness to announce the passing of Michael James. "Everybody give me your money!" Eventually, he moved two dozen ladies to Panama City. Then my friend got back to me a couple days later and said there was just one question: Do you want a sub with missiles or without? , For all their camaraderie, though, the criminals opinions of one another were mixed. "I'm in survival mode now," Galeota says, adding that he agonizes over being imprisoned for what he believes are unjust charges. In the distance, La Cordillera de San Blas cuts through the Panamanian jungle like a serrated knife. When the bartender told Shea it was last call, he became enraged. He hired 'Fat Tony' Galeota as Porky's manager. Again, Tony's friends in New York told him where to go. 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. ", McDonald has succeeded, however, in chipping away at the case, persuading a judge three weeks ago to drop the trafficking charge on a technicality. "We just meshed," she says. The young mobster needed to lay low, so the Pacciones sent him south to a strip club called the Porthole Pub in Pompano Beach. "My father wasn't in the mob, but his friends were," Tony says. While on routine patrol, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection plane spotted a suspicious speed boat. Even then, however, he couldn't sleep. Join the New Times community and help support It was coke or pimping or messing with the wrong people.. Instead, Galeota admits he's done bad things, such as running Miami's most infamous strip club, Porky's, for years before moving to Panama and opening a brothel. He was 31. I hoped to walk away from the deal with $10 million.. When crews were launched to investigate, the suspected smugglers threw several packages into the water. But it was abundantly clear that the key figure in the deal was Yester and his story would be particularly illuminating though the CIA, DEA and FBI had been after him, without success, for more than two decades. The Coast Guard said four suspected smugglers were taken into custody and 32 bales of cocaine were found in the water. View Tony Galeota's 1940 US census record to find family members, occupation details & more. When he was 16, he knocked up his 15-year-old girlfriend at Hauppauge High School. According to Yester, the cartel provided an initial payment of $10 million. A kilo of cocaine in Panama costs much less - about $5,000 per. 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