Its a great success overall. "She would use shoe polish to change our driver's licenses so we could go to clubs and drink when we were 15. 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. "We were doing fantastic, but Tarzan got bored and started living the life," Galeota explains. Like a concert pianist, Tony Galeota has spent his life honing a single skill since he was a teenager. But Fainberg wasn't in town to catch up. Between the restaurant and the Doll House, he was making enough to retire in five years. See also: "From Porky's to Panamanian Prison: Web Extra.". 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. "Running a club in that neighborhood, win or lose, you've got to fight.". 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.. 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. Galeota and his "girls" in the Doll House, before the bust. Within weeks of its April 2011 opening, the club was raking in $6,000 on good nights. The domestic bliss lasted only a couple of weeks. "Now I'm living in hell.". Galeota tried going straight, opening a coffee shop in downtown Panama City. While on routine patrol, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection plane spotted a suspicious speed boat. "Whenever there is an American businessman involved in crime here in Panama, it becomes an important case. "This case has had a big impact here," says Jos Otero, a reporter for Panamanian newspaper La Prensa. Its our mission down there besides search and rescue. Days go by without water, and when it does arrive, it's turbid sludge from a nearby river. We've been here for two years!' One can imagine they did plenty of drugs.. Controlling it. A large Russian man called Tarzan sits in an armchair against the backdrop of a cracked and stained wall, a pack of cigarettes, lighter and an ash tray on a table to his left, and he shrugs as he talks about a deal he tried to broker more than 20 years ago. "It was a nightmare in there.". 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 nightmare deepened for Galeota. "He was a smooth-talker. Over the years, Galeota saw nearly a dozen shootings at Porky's, some of them fatal. And, above all, selling it. Tony Galletta. 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. Like a concert pianist, Tony Galeota has spent his life honing a single skill since he was a teenager. It wasn't until he ordered some Italian food and a cold Guinness that he finally felt like he was free. He'd already invested in seven apartments in Panama City and rented a storefront on the capital's seediest street, where prostitution was legal. See Photos. But this was Hialeah.". Of the $10 million, he said, I cannot f- -king believe it how fast I spend it.. Juan, Tarzan and law enforcement insisted there was no way hed agree to participate in the documentary. For a while, Panama's pay-to-play culture suited Galeota just fine. The year before, his father helped him land a job as a wedding DJ. ", Tony Galeota and fellow defendant Alon "Tarzan" Bar during better days in their Panama club The Doll House, After bribing half the guards at La Joya, Galeota was taken to an immigration holding center in Panama City where he and four co-defendants were kept for four more days. It was a Foxtrot-class submarine, or Project 641 as the Soviets called it. There was nothing unusual about it. 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. 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. Making the documentary, he says: I found the story so compelling and so riveting that I was just relentlessly magnetized to it. His mother, Bonnie Gellilti, was "a bit of a criminal," Tony remembers. Wrongly imprisoned. 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. 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. More than anything, Galeota is grateful that his family kept faith in him. Sixteen months later, the two men have yet to appear in court. Panama's judicial system is outdated and overburdened, she says. Tarzan, got his first job in America as an enforcer for the Gambino crime family. ), 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. When one inmate killed another, the dead man's gang on the outside murdered the inmate's entire family, Galeota says. See Photos. "They murdered a guy in here a couple of days ago," Tony Galeota says. "I lived it up in Miami," he says. Here, Galeota is just one of 500 prisoners crammed into a filthy cell block designed to hold 200 people. But Galeota's problems aren't completely behind him. It is not known when he was born or his current age. As the authorities closed in, they picked up Juan and Tarzan, but they couldnt find Tony and neither could the cartel. As for Yester taking a flier with the cartel money, Tarzan says he would have done the same himself if he could have and expresses no hard feelings. She is cute and curvy with dark hair and a button nose. And like the Italian-American crooner, he loved women a little too much. We didn't even have to have sex unless we wanted to," says a Colombian stripper named Catherine. "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. It continued at another local strip club, called Quarterbacks Playmates Lounge. Prostitution was so common at Porky's that the club had fixed places and prices, Galeota says. 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. Photo Gallery. 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. 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. "I thought I would kick up my heels together like 'Oh my God, I'm finally out,'" he says. S10 E10 Miami Mobster Take Down. "We treated the women well.". "I just watched Luis blow a guy away," Galeota heard himself say on tape. "I want to go legit when I get out, but if the economy is bad, I might go back to the industry," he says. "Miami is a place where I would love to live," he pronounced, "and where I would love to die." They went Maserati shopping by helicopter so they could look at the cars from the air. We had a $500,000 house, cars, and motorcycles. In the distance, La Cordillera de San Blas cuts through the Panamanian jungle like a serrated knife. the agent said. 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. "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. Anthony Galeota was born October 17, 1968, on Long Island. The person they were going to pay for the submarine was the officer who let them [into the naval base], says Russell. 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. independent local journalism in Miami. Sign Up. He sold the shop and in 2010 opened Bongos, a restaurant serving wings and beer. Get the latest updates in news, food, music and culture, and receive special offers direct to your inbox. Back in South Florida, Kristy Galeota vacillates between outrage and empathy for her husband. Become a member to support the independent voice of South Florida This story has been shared 173,716 times. I just called a friend who had a friend and asked if he could get us a sub. Michael Galeota, who starred on the Disney Channel's "The Jersey" died Sunday, according to Variety. Guards with machine guns man rusty metal towers. But Porky's was just a Hialeah dive bar on the corner of SE 14th Street and Ninth Avenue, surrounded by cheap motels and buzzed by flights taking off from Miami International Airport. This looks great. . Almeida was a specialist in obtaining black-market goods for status-crazed drug dealers. Join the New Times community and help support independent "Last week we were supposed to have a hearing, but there was no running water in Panama City. With little oversight, military leaders acted as if they were independent of the government. Michael Galeota, who starred on the Disney Channel's "The Jersey" died Sunday, according to Variety. 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. "They would describe what they looked like," Galeota says. It had been ten years since U.S. 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. "It is with tremendous heartfelt sadness to announce the passing of Michael James Gal In hand-painted white lettering, it reads, "Dear visitors. But instead of classical music, his specialty is sex. Get started U.S. Yearbooks Name Index, 1890-1979. He paid for her to secretly get an abortion. 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 . 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. And twice they had given up. And so it was extraordinary, where sort of person after person was this larger-than-life character, from Fat Tony the bartender to Tony Yester the spy-turned-dope-dealer-turned-fugitive. 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. Wrongly imprisoned. His mother, Bonnie Gellilti, was "a bit of a criminal," Tony remembers. "This case has had a big impact here," says Jos Otero, a reporter for Panamanian newspaper La Prensa. 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. By the mid-'90s, Galeota had turned Porky's into a one-stop shop for strippers, sex, and serious drugs. The two were married in 1994 at a wedding full of mobsters. They finally fled the country this past July, leaving Tony alone. Coast Guard members who seized the cocaine said this is what their jobs are all about. Even then, however, he couldn't sleep. McDonald expects those will be dismissed as well, but not for months. 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. And last year, Yester was finally arrested in Rome on charges unrelated to the submarine while en route to a wedding. "It was puppy love," he says. Galeota may not be a good man, but he is brutally honest. Rats, roaches, and beetles the size of Chihuahuas crawl over inmates at night. "She would use shoe polish to change our driver's licenses so we could go to clubs and drink when we were 15. This time, I'm innocent.". With Fainberg locked up, Porky's was Galeota's plaything. Anywhere other than La Joya, this news would be shocking. "Many times, I worried about him getting killed. He escaped with his life and went on the run, aiming to avoid the cartel, Interpol and US law enforcers. Miami's underworld may still be seedy, but it has outsourced much of its shadiness to nearby Third-World countries such as Panama. Prosecutors say police never filed the necessary paperwork. "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. The FBI swooped in January 21, surrounding the club and arresting Fainberg. When he left to open a bona fide brothel in Panama, Galeota thought the country's lax prostitution laws would make him rich. Reborn behind bars. ", - 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. 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. But not until she discovered he'd been dating a former Porky's stripper for more than two years did she threaten to divorce him in 2009. Find your friends on Facebook. I said, Thank you, Cali cartel. , updated But the hassle had taken its toll on him. Instead, they eat rice for lunch and dinner, drink dirty river water, and use a hole in the ground for a toilet. Ludwig Fainberg a Russian-speaking Ukrainian nicknamed "Tarzan" for his flowing locks had opened it a few months earlier but ran it like a private club for Eastern Europeans. "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. His father, Arnold, was a strait-laced sales manager but a distant and disapproving dad. "This case has had a big impact here," says Jos Otero, a reporter for Panamanian newspaper La Prensa. 4:00AM. 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 Indeed, Tony would turn Porky's into a moneymaking machine. The submarine request, which came from Yester on behalf of the cartel, was not as outrageous as it now sounds. Like a real-life godfather, Galeota weathered it all. If only there were a place where prostitution was legal, he thought, a city full of beautiful women like Miami, but no rules. (A New York Police Department spokesman says records from that far back aren't available.) Twice, American authorities had investigated Galeota. Again, Tony's friends in New York told him where to go. 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. But Galeota's problems aren't completely behind him. . The smugglers boat was destroyed because it was a hazard to navigation. And like the Italian-American crooner, he loved women a little too much. They tried to squeeze Fainberg to get Seidle. The offload is a result of two successful drug interdictions in the Caribbean since August 23. When Galeota arrived, his mobster reputation preceded him. Next time, I will steal it back from him., Tarzan (left) at the site of the submarine. Running an underworld operation in Cocaine Cowboys-era Miami wasn't an easy gig. As the couple drove south on I-95, they thought they were leaving the worst behind them. Were out there to cause an effect in the drug industry and I believe we made a little dent on it.. Filthy and crowded cell block of La Joya Prison, Panama. Facebook gives people the power. Instead, he's trapped in a labyrinthine legal system, alone and unable to speak Spanish. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. In January 2017, Almeida got federally charged by the Drug Enforcement Administration with conspiracy to possess narcotics with intent to distribute. But he insists that, for once, he has done nothing wrong. They were all together when Tony worked for the Russin mobsters in Porky's club as its manager. she scoffs. 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. His mother, Bonnie Gellilti, was "a bit of a. "It is with tremendous heartfelt sadness to announce the passing of Michael James. 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. Here, Galeota is just one of 500 prisoners crammed into a filthy cell block designed to hold 200 people. 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. In this real life Goodfellas tale, New York teen John Alite gets a job at his local Deli, a hangout for 'wise guys'. He didn't stay long. 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. When he was 16, he knocked up his 15-year-old girlfriend at Hauppauge High School. June 4, 2013 "My wife could have left me. 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. Girls charged $150 or more for sex. They had girls in every city. He was 31. He bought seven properties pretty much sight unseen.". 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. With dark hair and pale, wide-set eyes, teenage Tony resembled a stocky Frank Sinatra. Galeota has seen several murders. Catherine says she slept with customers because she needed the money to support her family. A poster on the wall advertises "Lesby Show: 2 Girls per Person" for $350. When traffickers balked at the price, Yester reminded them that it could hold 40 tons of cocaine and would pay for itself quickly. 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. Galeota is no angelic Andy Dufresne, the main character in Shawshank who serves two decades behind bars for a crime he didn't commit. "Their connections were bigger than ours," he says. There is no rehabilitation here," he says. It was coke or pimping or messing with the wrong people.. Inside the prison, the sign is a running joke. October 4, 2012 Rising swiftly through the ranks, John buries his conscience to become a notorious Mafia hitman. By the time they returned to Long Island later that night, a pimp was born. On Friday, May 17, Galeota got word that the judge had also dismissed the drug charge because of lack of evidence. That didnt stop Russell from trying to get them on board with doing a film about the submarine deal. Prosecutors charged Galeota and Fainberg with not only drug dealing but also human trafficking. Indeed, court records show that Seidle was a target of the federal wiretapping investigation. He was, after all, working with an American playboy in Miami and a fugitive Cuban spy to procure this submarine. 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. (Panama passed harsher penalties for human trafficking during Galeota's incarceration, but Galeota can't be prosecuted under laws that weren't in place when he was arrested. After that, Kristy closed Bongos. A year later, it was $115,000 per month.". Moreover, trafficking prostitutes and drugs and involvement in organized crime are some serious charges.". But all the cops found were five grams of weed, a bottle of Viagra, and some mysterious yellow pills. "I lived it up in Miami," he says. Gunshots flashed like fireworks in the darkness. Its a great satisfaction after being two months deployed and everybodys tired but you come home with a case like this its very satisfying, said Castro. Create a free family tree for yourself or for Tony Galeota and we'll search for valuable new information for you. View Tony Galeota's 1940 US census record to find family members, occupation details & more. "It was a nightmare in there. "I wouldn't leave a dog in that prison, let alone my husband.". As he contemplates the question, Galeota watches his fellow inmates kick a soccer ball across La Joya's putrid playground. Just not a strip club. As Yester laid low with the cash, cartel liaisons in the United States, aware that they had been burned, pressured Almeida to show them where Yesters relatives lived in and around Miami. 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. And he hopes to open a place in Fort Lauderdale when he's back, Just not a strip club. Two days later, he was transferred to La Joya a hellish cinder-block complex an hour outside of Panama City. Luckier still, a powerful Colombian inmate named Mauricio Ramrez recognized Galeota from his restaurant. This story has been shared 121,048 times. While he, Tarzan and Juan were dealing with the Colombians and while Tony and Tarzan even got onto a Russian military naval base to tour a possible submarine for the deal the entire time the Cuban was planning to rip off the Colombians. Tony Galeota has a wife named Kristy Galeota, with whom he lives. Moreover, trafficking prostitutes and drugs and involvement in organized crime are some serious charges.". We asked them some questions and some of their information didnt quite add up, so we conducted a boarding.. 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. "A family type thing, like an ale house with wings and beer," he says. With dark hair and pale, wide-set eyes, teenage Tony resembled a stocky Frank Sinatra. "You see who wants to fuck your wife, who wants to rob you, and who your real friends are.". Galeota is no angelic Andy Dufresne, the main character in Shawshank who serves two decades behind bars for a crime he didn't commit. 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. 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. "But I've always paid for everything, either with stitches in my head, concussions, or jail time. Most of them were robberies gone wrong or simple revenge. Thats why you have to do this kind of story as non-fiction., The initial meeting with Tarzan, however, was hampered by the fact that the Russian mob got wind of Russells visit, he says, and they threatened Tarzans life inside the jail if he shared his full story. Documentary Drama When Miami mobster Tony Galeota opens a club in Panama City, the competition frames him for drug dealing and human trafficking. You could not mislead him in any way or you could tell that the consequences could be serious, but I loved him. I have to tell you, all my enemies are dead, and Im happy, he says in the documentary. And she launched drunken tirades at Tony after baseball games, no matter how well the all-star shortstop performed. "My father wasn't in the mob, but his friends were," Tony says. Then once he sent me this crazy email like, Holy s***! Join the New Times community and help support Banks seized all seven of his apartments. Awards. 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. "I'm used to getting my water from a rain bucket, not hot from the tap." When he left to open a bona fide brothel in Panama, Galeota thought the country's lax prostitution laws would make him rich. Then she'd charge my friends $50 each," he says. The Porky's party nearly came to a sudden end in early 1997. "It was so slow I couldn't take it," he says. Make a one-time donation today for as little as $1. The Coast Guard said four suspected smugglers were taken into custody and 32 bales of cocaine were found in the water. Tony Gogetta. A dozen plainclothes cops poured in with pistols drawn. 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.
