"The worst part of being in here is being in here for nothing. Police repeatedly raided the club, yet Galeota escaped unscathed every time. Facebook gives people the power. independent local journalism in Miami. Filmography (by Job) Trailers and Videos. The domestic bliss lasted only a couple of weeks. We've been here for two years!' Kristy and his sons hid in a shabby, poorly protected office. one of the kids shouted as he pulled a handkerchief over his face and wildly swung a revolver. I'm kind of stuck with it. We've been here for two years!' He was a big, big fish.". The last one locked the door. The drugs will be turned over to the DEA. I told Juan, I said, Hey. 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. Galeota's enemies say that a life of sin has finally caught up with the flesh-peddler. Tony Galeota Profiles | Facebook We asked them some questions and some of their information didnt quite add up, so we conducted a boarding.. He was 31. ", - 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 sign on the latter reads, "District Attorney for Drugs: Do Not Enter." "We were like: 'We want to get the fuck out of here. Prostitution is legal in Panama," he complains. He sold the shop and in 2010 opened Bongos, a restaurant serving wings and beer. Moreover, trafficking prostitutes and drugs and involvement in organized crime are some serious charges.". "It is with tremendous heartfelt sadness to announce the passing of Michael James. Facilitating it. 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. Galeota is no angelic Andy Dufresne, the main character in Shawshank who serves two decades behind bars for a crime he didn't commit. Get the latest updates in news, food, music and culture, and receive special offers direct to your inbox. "But she's never going to forget. Running an underworld operation in Cocaine Cowboys-era Miami wasn't an easy gig. "They shot him in the middle of the night," Galeota continues quietly, "and buried his body behind the pavilion.". "Like me, he was a black sheep who could do nothing right.". "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. But in South Florida, he was once a strip club king. When the bartender told Shea it was last call, he became enraged. South Florida's independent We didn't even have to have sex unless we wanted to," says a Colombian stripper named Catherine. And she launched drunken tirades at Tony after baseball games, no matter how well the all-star shortstop performed. I got a piece of the action of every blowjob that my friends got," Galeota says. She's forgiven me, for the most part. But he insists that, for once, he has done nothing wrong. Sixteen months later, the two men have yet to appear in court. Just not a strip club. Join the New Times community and help support 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. "I want to go legit when I get out, but if the economy is bad, I might go back to the industry," he says. For a while, Panama's pay-to-play culture suited Galeota just fine. When crews were launched to investigate, the suspected smugglers threw several packages into the water. Kristy was a self-described "firecracker" who had also escaped from an abusive home and wanted attention. Rising swiftly through the ranks, John buries his conscience to become a notorious Mafia hitman. When one inmate killed another, the dead man's gang on the outside murdered the inmate's entire family, Galeota says. People named Tony Goleta. 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. "They shot him in the middle of the night," Galeota continues quietly, "and buried his body behind the pavilion.". And twice they had given up. Bonnie also shoplifted booze to sustain her hard drinking habit. Instead of celebrating, he walked through the scuzzy neighborhood until he found a shabby motel. Russian mobsters learned about their comrade's successful venture, and adopted the club as a virtual office. "We just meshed," she says. New laws effectively outlaw brothels such as the Doll House, permit or not but if Galeota walks with no convictions, it will surely embarrass officials trying to make it look like they're cleaning up the industry. Tony Galeota has a wife named Kristy Galeota, with whom he lives. "But she's never going to forget. When he left to open a bona fide brothel in Panama, Galeota thought the country's lax prostitution laws would make him rich. Wrongly imprisoned. Disney Star Michael Galeota Death: Brother Jimmy Opens Up About Family S10 E10 - Miami Mobster Take Down Tony Galeota is framed for drug trafficking in Panama City. "Many times, I worried about him getting killed. 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. They went Maserati shopping by helicopter so they could look at the cars from the air. "But I've always paid for everything, either with stitches in my head, concussions, or jail time. Banged Up Abroad - National Geographic for everyone in everywhere 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. "But I've always paid for everything, either with stitches in my head, concussions, or jail time. Inside, the bar is still littered with half-empty bottles of Chivas Regal. "When you go to prison, it's like dying, but you get to see your own funeral," Galeota says. 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. Somewhere between his native Ukraine, Israel, and Russia, he'd shed his trademark long hair and changed his name to Alon Bar. When he discovered he was about to be subpoenaed, he withdrew $2,500 from the bank and boarded a two-week Caribbean cruise. Galeota's sheer size and mob connections are the only things keeping him from getting shivved in the dark. His mother, Bonnie Gellilti, was "a bit of a criminal," Tony remembers. The bartender hid in the bathroom and dialed 911. Make a one-time donation today for as little as $1. Finally, on May 23, the gate on Galeota's cramped cell swung open, and he was free to go. MIAMI BEACH (CBSMiami) The Coast Guard offloaded about $93 million of cocaine Thursday afternoon on Miami Beach. He paid for her to secretly get an abortion. 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. The 43-year-old is shaped like a mini refrigerator: short and squat, with a shaved head and wide-set emerald eyes. 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. Between an undercover agent, a tap on Tarzans cellphone and the wiring of Babushka, federal law enforcement agencies had enough information to shut down the sale. "Then they'd tell me: 'They are as good as dead.'". Make a one-time donation today for as little as $1. "They had what seemed like a dynamite case, but it has ended up in pieces.". Galeota was crammed into a sweltering holding cell with 150 others. While out of sight, he phoned his guy and lied about being in a particular taxi cab. And she launched drunken tirades at Tony after baseball games, no matter how well the all-star shortstop performed. Photo courtesy of Josh Weiss - Giant insects infest the prison. As the authorities closed in, they picked up Juan and Tarzan, but they couldnt find Tony and neither could the cartel. Locked Up Abroad 151M subscribers Miami mobster Tony Galeota is a strip-club supremo. Get the latest updates in news, food, music and culture, and receive special offers direct to your inbox. A deep bass line rattled customers' chests as they downed overpriced drinks. 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. While another new prisoner was beaten and robbed, Galeota was untouched. Anthony Galeota (right) poses with Ludwig "Tarzan" Fainberg inside the Doll House weeks before their arrest. On Friday, May 17, Galeota got word that the judge had also dismissed the drug charge because of lack of evidence. Miami playboy, Russian gangster and Cuban spy tried to buy submarine "Running a club in that neighborhood, win or lose, you've got to fight.". Of the $10 million, he said, I cannot f- -king believe it how fast I spend it.. "That's the problem.". "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 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. 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. "My father wasn't in the mob, but his friends were," Tony says. In the meantime, he's spending time with his wife and kids. 16:56 GMT 13 Mar 2018 Its a great success overall. We break down the best movies and series to watch in November in theaters and streaming. and help keep the future of New Times, Use of this website constitutes acceptance of our. 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. But Galeota's problems aren't completely behind him. A poster on the wall advertises "Lesby Show: 2 Girls per Person" for $350. A judge eventually dropped the human trafficking charge, but Galeota still rotted in his sordid cell alongside insects the size of small dogs. She is cute and curvy with dark hair and a button nose. 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. ", "You hear that?" 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. One scammer stole from another scammer; of course I accept it, he says. According to Yester, the cartel provided an initial payment of $10 million. Because of his age, he escaped with six months' probation. But this was Hialeah.". document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. During a visit last month, a New Times reporter witnessed one police official receive a $20 bill in a barely disguised handshake. 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 . I hoped to walk away from the deal with $10 million.. We have a lot of laughs about it now," he says. Miami's underworld may still be seedy, but it has outsourced much of its shadiness to nearby Third-World countries such as Panama. CAKEGATE 2023: Bad Bunny's Restaurant Accused of Gobbling Birthday Girl's Cake, Neighborhood Nazi Jon Minadeo Peddles Hate by the Minute, Sen. Rubio's Permanent Daylight Savings Bill Sees Light of Day Once More, NFL Legend Ray Lewis Joins World Jai-Alai League Board of Directors, Affordable New "Micro-Units" Slated for Little River, Edgewater. 8:00AM. Were out there to cause an effect in the drug industry and I believe we made a little dent on it.. 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. He was the one whod been speaking directly to the cartel; he was the only one who knew the real amount of money Cali were willing to pay; and he was the one who took the risk and disappeared with millions of the cartels drug money. Join Facebook to connect with Anthony Galeota and others you may know. The Porky's party nearly came to a sudden end in early 1997. 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. Anywhere other than La Joya, this news would be shocking. 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. See also: "From Porky's to Panamanian Prison: Web Extra.". 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. His father, Arnold, was a strait-laced sales manager but a distant and disapproving dad. Anthony Galeota was born October 17, 1968, on Long Island. "I've done a lot of shady things in the States," he admits. His government protection would evaporate, the Doll House would be raided, his investments would be stolen, and he would be arrested. Tony Galeto. "I was 16 years old and amazed," he says. Indeed, court records show that Seidle was a target of the federal wiretapping investigation. Tony Galeota Wikipedia: Everything To Know About The Film Actor At night, the guards lock the gate and leave, turning over control of each cell block to prisoners. We travelled all the time. Biography. We've received your submission. Guards with machine guns man rusty metal towers. "Luis pulled out a .38 and shot the guy in the chest. In retrospect, when you tell the stories aloud, its like, Thats insane and you, Tiller, are an insane person for having done that. Its funny; I was just like, this is too good of a story to let go. This is a guy that the FBI went after for years but could never get him. Russian immigrant Ludwig Fainberg, a.k.a. Both Juan and Tarzan shared with Russell how they had graduated from buying helicopters, motorcycles and cars for the cartel from Russia to pursuing a submarine for the drugrunners. "Everybody give me your money!" He bought seven properties pretty much sight unseen.". But then the country's corrupt system turned on them. 17:57 GMT 13 Mar 2018. Reborn behind bars. And, above all, selling it. They had girls in every city. Skip Ancestry main menu Main Menu Sheila Flynn For Dailymail.com Marshals deported Ludwig Fainberg from Miami. For the most part, Doll House dancers agree. By now, she knows of his many infidelities, including that he lived and slept with some of the girls at the Doll House. They were concerned that Tarzan and his arriviste colleagues in crime would merge with Cuban mobsters who already used brutal, bloody force to rule Miamis underworld and create a sort of supergroup of criminality. It continued at another local strip club, called Quarterbacks Playmates Lounge. When Bill Seidle died, Galeota knew the club's days were numbered. 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. He was, after all, working with an American playboy in Miami and a fugitive Cuban spy to procure this submarine. But instead of classical music, his specialty is sex. Miami mobster Tony Galeota is locked up in Panama after being framed for drug dealing and human trafficking. 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. Join the New Times community and help support independent Tony Galeto. And they were doing it on behalf of the notorious Cali drug cartel in Colombia, who planned to use the underwater vessel to smuggle cocaine undetected. In the second interdiction, a Customs plane spotted another suspicious boat off the coast of Panama on August 28th. People named Tony Galeta. Banged Up Abroad - Wikipedia "But I've always paid for everything, either with stitches in my head, concussions, or jail time. Its a lot of f- -king paper. 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. The Marin Post
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