"It was puppy love," he says. And so from there, Juan showed up in Moscow with a vague, half-assed agreement with Tarzan he still had gotten me to come there without agreeing to be in the film, and he put me through the paces of taking me to the sauna and sort of took me on this insane kind of underworld tour of Moscow. Juan, Tarzan and law enforcement insisted there was no way hed agree to participate in the documentary. 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. The submarine request, which came from Yester on behalf of the cartel, was not as outrageous as it now sounds. Anthony Galeota was born October 17, 1968, on Long Island. He was 31. "We were like: 'We want to get the fuck out of here. Wrongly imprisoned. None of them ever appeared in the newspapers, but Hialeah police records confirm there were at least ten shootings at Porky's during Galeota's tenure. Galeota and his "girls" in the Doll House, before the bust. October 4, 2012 Make a one-time donation today for as little as $1. The Dolls House, Via Espaia Road, Panama City, Panam, "They murdered a guy in here a couple of days ago" Tony Galeota, Tony Galeota: From Running Porky's, Miami's Most Notorious Strip Joint, to Rotting in a Panamanian Jail. "I've been in this business my whole life. The FBI swooped in January 21, surrounding the club and arresting Fainberg. People named Toni Galeota Find your friends on Facebook Log in or sign up for Facebook to connect with friends, family and people you know. Its impossible but only because its true. Reborn behind bars. Sheila Flynn For Dailymail.com, Smashing the Sinaloa cartel: Major coup for DEA as agents seize $6MILLION cash, hundreds of pounds of narcotics and indict 75 across America for 'laundering drug money for El Chapo's gang', Is this proof that British aristocrat did NOT smuggle drugs into Africa? As Shea tried to pull the panties off one of the dancers, he heard police sirens in the distance and bolted. When he discovered he was about to be subpoenaed, he withdrew $2,500 from the bank and boarded a two-week Caribbean cruise. "If you like to eat chocolate and you live in a chocolate factory, you're going to eat chocolate," he says. There was nothing unusual about it. #Torture #PanamGovernment #LaJoyaprisonPanam #PresidentVarela #Panam #Corruption. SO I started with the cops and I had been kind of circling the others without knowing if it was really possible or not. And theyre like, F*** yeah, lets do it. So the translator said she couldn't take a shower, didn't show up, and the case was delayed. So we met with a realtor, got high, and Tony got stupid with money. 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. Furious and Busted Rick Cedar steals radios to support his family. Sixteen months later, the two men have yet to appear in court. But the Doll House and Moulin Rouge remain closed. We travelled all the time. His father, Arnold, was a strait-laced sales manager but a distant and disapproving dad. Police repeatedly raided the club, yet Galeota escaped unscathed every time. Tony Galeta. "She would use shoe polish to change our driver's licenses so we could go to clubs and drink when we were 15. "These guys were into just about everything," Assistant U.S. Attorney Diana Fernandez said at the time. Photo Gallery. When Bill Seidle died, Galeota knew the club's days were numbered. And I'm not asking her to.". Behind him, 12-foot-high fences topped with spools of barbed wire frame a muddy soccer field. A dozen plainclothes cops poured in with pistols drawn. "I lived it up in Miami," he says. Galeota is no angelic Andy Dufresne, the main character in Shawshank who serves two decades behind bars for a crime he didn't commit. In the meantime, he's spending time with his wife and kids. 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. "Whenever there is an American businessman involved in crime here in Panama, it becomes an important case. "It was a nightmare in there.". Instead of celebrating, he walked through the scuzzy neighbourhood until he found a shabby motel. They put a hit out on him when he disappeared with the money, while Juan and Tarzan took the legal fall in Miami. 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. When traffickers balked at the price, Yester reminded them that it could hold 40 tons of cocaine and would pay for itself quickly. Running an underworld operation in Cocaine Cowboys-era Miami wasn't an easy gig. "I was 16 years old and amazed," he says. 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. 4:00AM. Business was better, but it still wouldn't make him rich. His mother, Bonnie Gellilti, was "a bit of a. Galeota was hit with felony drug and prostitution charges. Panama had gone from paradise to purgatory. 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. One scammer stole from another scammer; of course I accept it, he says. "They shot him in the middle of the night," Galeota continues quietly, "and buried his body behind the pavilion.". "It was so slow I couldn't take it," he says. But Tony had darker secrets. 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. Anywhere other than La Joya, this news would be shocking. 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. Within weeks of its April 2011 opening, the club was raking in $6,000 on good nights. 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 Photos. 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. "There was no transportation, no cops, no nothing," he says. 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. And there was absolutely no bullshit. 8:00AM. Everything here has a cost.". Facebook Email or phone Password Forgot account? They had girls in every city. Twice, American authorities had investigated Galeota. With little oversight, military leaders acted as if they were independent of the government. 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. 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. 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. 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. Galeota is one of several Americans locked up here. We did outsmart the FBI, we did outsmart the DEA, we even did outsmart the court, Tarzan says in the film. This time, I'm innocent.". "My father wasn't in the mob, but his friends were," Tony says. The domestic bliss lasted only a couple of weeks. Panama's judicial system is outdated and overburdened, she says. 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. "I was always looking for their approval," he says, "but I never got that. Photo courtesy of Josh Weiss - Giant insects infest the prison. "Anthony has been in jail for more than 15 months, and a judge hasn't even heard his case yet!" "But I've always paid for everything, either with stitches in my head, concussions, or jail time. When the bartender told Shea it was last call, he became enraged. Family members can also bring them food and clean water, however, and inmates bribe guards to smuggle in additional items. Facilitating it. "I thought I would kick up my heels together like 'Oh my God, I'm finally out,'" he says. And he hopes to open a place in Fort Lauderdale when he's back, Just not a strip club. Locked Up Abroad 151M subscribers Miami mobster Tony Galeota is a strip-club supremo. "That's the problem.". 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. "Now I'm living in hell.". But the man's paws were soon on her crotch again. He was very serious and said he would look into it. "Last week we were supposed to have a hearing, but there was no running water in Panama City. On Friday, May 17, Galeota got word that the judge had also dismissed the drug charge because of lack of evidence. Again, the charges were dropped. He bought seven properties pretty much sight unseen.". In this real life Goodfellas tale, New York teen John Alite gets a job at his local Deli, a hangout for 'wise guys'. Get started U.S. Yearbooks Name Index, 1890-1979. The nightmare deepened for Galeota. He was 31. Tarzan, got his first job in America as an enforcer for the Gambino crime family. Find your friends on Facebook. I got a piece of the action of every blowjob that my friends got," Galeota says. By then, the club's criminal clientele and Fainberg's increasingly lavish lifestyle had raised eyebrows. Eventually, he moved two dozen ladies to Panama City. He was a character.. S10 E10 - Miami Mobster Take Down Tony Galeota is framed for drug trafficking in Panama City. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. I said, Thank you, Cali cartel. Also read: Tony Galeota: From Running. Explore More. But their courtship was cut short. He headed right to his beloved Miami, Florida. Indeed, Tony would turn Porky's into a moneymaking machine. Biography. Galeota is no angelic Andy Dufresne, the main character in Shawshank who serves two decades behind bars for a crime he didn't commit. In the meantime, he's spending time with his wife and kids. But the story of how the documentary got made is nearly as crazy as the caper plot itself. And last year, Yester was finally arrested in Rome on charges unrelated to the submarine while en route to a wedding. But Galeota was convinced the cops were bluffing and refused to cooperate. The last one locked the door. Galeota was crammed into a sweltering holding cell with 150 others. The dead and dying are piled into wheelbarrows and left by the front gate until guards arrive in the morning. When youre rolling with the criminal underworld, its always weird; its really weird in Russia.. 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. "I just watched Luis blow a guy away," Galeota heard himself say on tape. "My father wasn't in the mob, but his friends were," Tony says. 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. Two days later, he was transferred to La Joya a hellish cinder-block complex an hour outside of Panama City. The charismatic teenager sold the stolen suits or electronics at strip clubs or used-car lots. "Thank God I'm out," he tells New Times in his first interview since his release. Michael Galeota, who starred on the Disney Channel's "The Jersey" died Sunday, according to Variety. 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. 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. Reborn behind bars. When he was 16, he knocked up his 15-year-old girlfriend at Hauppauge High School. and help keep the future of New Times, Use of this website constitutes acceptance of our, From Porky's to Panamanian Prison: Web Extra. Almeida was a specialist in obtaining black-market goods for status-crazed drug dealers. local news and culture, Michael E. Miller When he left to open a bona fide brothel in Panama, Galeota thought the country's lax prostitution laws would make him rich. The lessons in crime didn't come fast enough for Galeota to stay out of trouble. And she launched drunken tirades at Tony after baseball games, no matter how well the all-star shortstop performed. The fear was well founded, considering what went down when Tarzan linked up with Cuban outlaws Juan Almeida and Nelson Tony Yester. Eventually, however, he made his way to Tarzan. He might have sold them the submarine, taken the money and walked away with the money.. South Florida's independent or. Like a concert pianist, Tony Galeota has spent his life honing a single skill since he was a teenager. local news and culture, Michael E. Miller Director Tiller Russell Stars Ludwig Fainberg Juan Almeida Nelson Yester See production, box office & company info Add to Watchlist 44 User reviews 9 Critic reviews Awards 1 nomination Videos 2 Trailer 1:46 These interdiction's were part of Operation Martillo, an international operation to fight illegal trafficking. Anthony Galeota was born October 17, 1968, on Long Island. 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. Yester told the Colombians that theyd have to pay $35 million for the vessel, even though Tarzan had talked the price down to $5.5 million plus just $600 for a crew to pilot it to Colombia. (CBS Miami). Locked up in one of the world's worst prisons, Tony has to prove his innocence and attempt an audacious escape. But the deal never happened. "They knew some Russian guy named Tarzan who had just opened up a club in Miami called Porky's. When he left to open a bona fide brothel in Panama, Galeota thought the country's lax prostitution laws would make him rich. They went Maserati shopping by helicopter so they could look at the cars from the air. Rats, roaches, and beetles the size of Chihuahuas crawl over inmates at night. 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. In the distance, La Cordillera de San Blas cuts through the Panamanian jungle like a serrated knife. By the time they returned to Long Island later that night, a pimp was born. He was a big, big fish.". We both understand that.". His Doll House dream began at Porky's. State and local police launched an investigation in February 2009. He'd already invested in seven apartments in Panama City and rented a storefront on the capital's seediest street, where prostitution was legal. Michael Galeota, who starred on the Disney Channel's "The Jersey" died Sunday, according to Variety. He offered protection and gave Galeota $200. But instead of classical music, his specialty is sex. "Everybody give me your money!" 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. Follow this journalist on Twitter @MikeMillerMiami. ", http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2012-10-04/news/tony-galeota-from-running-porky-s-miami-s-most-notorious-strip-joint-to-rotting-in-a-panamanian-jail/full/.