The drugs will be turned over to the DEA. 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. "I've done a lot of shady things in the States," he admits. But Fainberg wasn't in town to catch up. Advertisement. Prostitution in Miami had become too risky, he decided, but overseas sex tourism was soaring. 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. Because of his age, he escaped with six months' probation. "He had that guido effect on me," she says. Wrongly imprisoned. And he hopes to open a place in Fort Lauderdale when he's back, Just not a strip club. Facilitating it. Tony was a tough, muscular little shit back then. He answered only to property owner William Seidle, a U.S. Bankruptcy Court trustee who ran a chain of car dealerships. Documentary Drama When Miami mobster Tony Galeota opens a club in Panama City, the competition frames him for drug dealing and human trafficking. 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. Facebook Email or phone Password Forgot account? This looks great. . But Monday morning, when it came time to walk out of La Joya, there was no vehicle waiting. Furious and Busted Rick Cedar steals radios to support his family. 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. Although he knows he could receive the death penalty, the money is too tempting to resist. Back in South Florida, Kristy Galeota vacillates between outrage and empathy for her husband. "It is with tremendous heartfelt sadness to announce the passing of Michael James.
"But I did it for my child.". Its a great success overall. "My father wasn't in the mob, but his friends were," Tony says. 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. He was recently sentenced to serve around six years in federal prison. "I was always looking for their approval," he says, "but I never got that. But his mind was on another kind of riches. He soon finds himself wanting to be a mobster, and starts running errands for them. By the time he was 18, he had been arrested seven times for armed robbery and assault, he says. Two days later, he was transferred to La Joya a hellish cinder-block complex an hour outside of Panama City. Sign Up. The Coast Guard said each one of the kilos is worth $33,000. But Galeota's problems aren't completely behind him. "They shot him in the middle of the night," Galeota continues quietly, "and buried his body behind the pavilion.". "But I've always paid for everything, either with stitches in my head, concussions, or jail time.
SO I started with the cops and I had been kind of circling the others without knowing if it was really possible or not. Filthy and crowded cell block of La Joya Prison, Panama. Explore More.
Joseph GALEOTA Obituary (2011) - Willimantic, CT - Hartford Courant "I thought I would kick up my heels together like 'Oh my God, I'm finally out,'" he says. Again, the charges were dropped.
Michael Galeota Obituary (1984 - 2016) - Pontotoc, MS - Pontotoc Progress Catherine says she slept with customers because she needed the money to support her family. If any official asks you to pay for anything, please report them.". When he discovered he was about to be subpoenaed, he withdrew $2,500 from the bank and boarded a two-week Caribbean cruise. 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 . Like a concert pianist, Tony Galeota has spent his life honing a single skill since he was a teenager. 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. Here, Galeota is just one of 500 prisoners crammed into a filthy cell block designed to hold 200 people. 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. Tony Goleta. The heavy-set Italian even signed a release. Galeota's sheer size and mob connections are the only things keeping him from getting shivved in the dark. His attorney has warned him that prosecutors will likely appeal, so he plans to stay in Panama until his case is resolved. "It was a very violent atmosphere," he says. Facebook gives people the power. 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. Galeota is one of several Americans locked up here. And like the Italian-American crooner, he loved women a little too much. 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. The message was that the cocaine traffickers would kill Yesters family members. "She would use shoe polish to change our driver's licenses so we could go to clubs and drink when we were 15. And like the Italian-American crooner, he loved women a little too much. When his dad lost his job, Tony paid the bills. Running an underworld operation in Cocaine Cowboys-era Miami wasn't an easy gig. Unfortunately, Galeota's defense isn't as simple as quoting strippers, says his lawyer, Guillermina McDonald. Marshals deported Ludwig Fainberg from Miami. . So I was literally stepping over dead bodies of the people who had been shanked and stuff over the course of the night.. The year before, his father helped him land a job as a wedding DJ. 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. "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. His mother, Bonnie Gellilti, was "a bit of a criminal," Tony remembers. He paid for her to secretly get an abortion. South Florida's independent Bonnie also shoplifted booze to sustain her hard drinking habit. 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. "If you like to eat chocolate and you live in a chocolate factory, you're going to eat chocolate," he says. Biography. "They shot him in the middle of the night," Galeota continues quietly, "and buried his body behind the pavilion.". His government protection would evaporate, the Doll House would be raided, his investments would be stolen, and he would be arrested. One man stabbed someone over a $10 debt. Controlling it. When Bill Seidle died, Galeota knew the club's days were numbered. By then, the club's criminal clientele and Fainberg's increasingly lavish lifestyle had raised eyebrows. They were all together when Tony worked for the Russin mobsters in Porky's club as its manager. 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.
Tony Galeota - Historical records and family trees - MyHeritage Police again surrounded Porky's in the early hours of May 9, 2009. "It was a real moneymaker. One can imagine they did plenty of drugs.. October 4, 2012 This time, the feds took over the strip club before selling it to new owners, with one requirement: Neither Galeota nor anyone else from the old club could ever work there again. Galeota tried going straight, opening a coffee shop in downtown Panama City. ), 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. According to the Coast Guard: It first took place north of the Gulf of Uraba. Theyre nice guys [the cartel members], and I didnt ask what they needed the submarine for., If they woke up and were hungry, they would fly a private jet to Cancun for lunch, says Tiller Russell, director of Operation Odessa. Then theyd roll to Venezuela to check out a new casino. When his younger brother was molested, he beat the suspected perpetrator to a pulp. He created a souped-up cigarette boat that went for $2 million and was presumably used to transport cocaine. The dead and dying are piled into wheelbarrows and left by the front gate until guards arrive in the morning. Like a real-life godfather, Galeota weathered it all.
Tony Galeota, Infamous Miami Strip Club Manager - Miami New Times As for his career, his only oath is that he won't let his sons follow his example. I got a piece of the action of every blowjob that my friends got," Galeota says. Its about 2,800 kilos, about a ton and a half of contraband. His mother, Bonnie Gellilti, was "a bit of a criminal," Tony remembers. Make a one-time donation today for as little as $1. Inside the prison, the sign is a running joke. "I used to have to patch Tony up all the time," Kristy says. At night, the guards lock the gate and leave, turning over control of each cell block to prisoners. His father, Arnold, was a strait-laced sales manager but a distant and disapproving dad. ", Coast Guard Offloads More Than $93 Million In Cocaine, Miami Beach. Anywhere other than La Joya, this news would be shocking. "It was puppy love," he says. He was 31. But Tony had darker secrets. A tattoo of an Italian Mafioso emerges from an extra-large sleeveless T-shirt. Join the New Times community and help support Join Facebook to connect with Anthony Galeota and others you may know. local news and culture, Michael E. Miller Tony Galeota: From Running Porky's, Miami's Most Notorious Strip Joint, to Rotting More than 500 inmates crowd into a cell block designed for 200. They finally fled the country this past July, leaving Tony alone. 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 43-year-old is shaped like a mini refrigerator: short and squat, with a shaved head and wide-set emerald eyes. In this real life Goodfellas tale, New York teen John Alite gets a job at his local Deli, a hangout for 'wise guys'. The submarine request, which came from Yester on behalf of the cartel, was not as outrageous as it now sounds. Meet me in Africa for a cup of coffee tomorrow.. "The investigation was so poorly handled and rushed," says Otero, the journalist. 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. 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. 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. Make a one-time donation today for as little as $1. Galeota is one of several Americans locked up here. "Keep your fucking hands off the girl!" Indeed, court records show that Seidle was a target of the federal wiretapping investigation. Galeota was crammed into a sweltering holding cell with 150 others. "We just meshed," she says. Bonnie also shoplifted booze to sustain her hard drinking habit. "My wife is never going to completely trust me. Behind him, 12-foot-high fences topped with spools of barbed wire frame a muddy soccer field. A tattoo of an Italian Mafioso emerges from an extra-large sleeveless T-shirt. The charismatic teenager sold the stolen suits or electronics at strip clubs or used-car lots. Log In. The $33,000 number is actually the wholesale price in the US for smugglers - or how much a kilo is worth delivered to US soil, for traffickers. 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. As he sweated in jail, Galeota's Panamanian empire crumbled. Sign Up. He bought seven properties pretty much sight unseen.". In the meantime, he's spending time with his wife and kids. Instead, they eat rice for lunch and dinner, drink dirty river water, and use a hole in the ground for a toilet. I gave each of my kids a Rolex when they were 5 years old.
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. "That clean, business-friendly, postcard-Panama bullshit is just a faade," Galeota says. Gunshots flashed like fireworks in the darkness. He was very serious and said he would look into it. "I'm used to getting my water from a rain bucket, not hot from the tap." "Maybe we didn't have the permits we were supposed to have, but we're foreigners who didn't understand the rules.". Prosecutors say police never filed the necessary paperwork. All he needed now were the prostitutes. Locked Up Abroad 151M subscribers Miami mobster Tony Galeota is a strip-club supremo.
Michael Galeota's Obituary (1984 - 2016) Estes Park Trail-Gazette In describing Tarzan, Almeida says in the film, He struck me as an oddball. Tarzan classifies Almeida as a guy who had two drinks and thought he was Tony Montana. As for movie-star handsome, hooker-loving Yesters first impression of Tarzan: I said, This f- -king guy is trouble. Thirty minutes later, I loved the trouble., Abetted by the tumultuous state of the former Soviet Union the ruble was completely devalued and state-owned resources went to whomever had the most firepower gaining access to the submarine was surprisingly easy. 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. "Their connections were bigger than ours," he says. 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. independent local journalism in Miami. Finally, on May 23, the gate on Galeota's cramped cell swung open, and he was free to go. Tony Gogetta. 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. ", - 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. A dozen plainclothes cops poured in with pistols drawn. As far as he was concerned, he owned the military base. Dalia Dippolito May Have Tried to Kill Him, But Michael Dippolito Is No Saint, Florida Man Wrestles Shark For Forty Five Minutes, Florida to Execute Death Row Prisoner Donald Dillbeck in February, "We Are Everywhere": Ominous Messages on Anti-Abortion Counseling Centers Prompt Federal Charges, So You're Saying There's (Still) a Chance: Dolphins Playoff Chances Dwindle After 26-20 Loss, Trashed American Flag Sparks Capitol Hill Kerfuffle, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information.
How 'Tarzan' and a Cuban duo 'got in deep' with a cocaine cartel Its impossible but only because its true. Santiago de Cali shone in the syrupy South American sunlight filling Colombia's Cauca River Valley. See Photos. He sold the shop and in 2010 opened Bongos, a restaurant serving wings and beer. Instead, he's trapped in a labyrinthine legal system, alone and unable to speak Spanish. Police repeatedly raided the club, yet Galeota escaped unscathed every time. 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. She's forgiven me, for the most part. The two ran Porky's for another decade after Fainberg's deportation. "Bill was one of the most influential people in Miami," Galeota says. These interdiction's were part of Operation Martillo, an international operation to fight illegal trafficking. Tony Kaleta. MICHAEL GALEOTA OBITUARY. 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. 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. When Seidle died in 2008, Porky's political protection followed the 82-year-old to the grave. It wasn't until he ordered some Italian food and a cold Guinness that he finally felt like he was free. Tony is my friend, and well always love each other. ", McDonald has succeeded, however, in chipping away at the case, persuading a judge three weeks ago to drop the trafficking charge on a technicality. By the time they returned to Long Island later that night, a pimp was born. CAKEGATE 2023: Bad Bunny's Restaurant Accused of Gobbling Birthday Girl's Cake, Neighborhood Nazi Jon Minadeo Peddles Hate by the Minute, Gator Gets in on the Action at Tampa Bay Horse Race, 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. They tried to squeeze Fainberg to get Seidle. 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. "The first month, we had $15,000 in gross sales. "She would use shoe polish to change our driver's licenses so we could go to clubs and drink when we were 15. 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. 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. You could not mislead him in any way or you could tell that the consequences could be serious, but I loved him. They were very compliant to everything we asked of them, said McElhaney. If only there were a place where prostitution was legal, he thought, a city full of beautiful women like Miami, but no rules.