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. View Tony Galeota's 1940 US census record to find family members, occupation details & more. As he sweated in jail, Galeota's Panamanian empire crumbled. "She would use shoe polish to change our driver's licenses so we could go to clubs and drink when we were 15. 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. 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. But the hassle had taken its toll on him. Update information for Tony Galeota . Tarzan, got his first job in America as an enforcer for the Gambino crime family. Inmates are fed bread and cheese for breakfast and rice (sometimes beans) for lunch and dinner. If anything, Galeota's life got even more out of control after Fainberg's arrest. Like a concert pianist, Tony Galeota has spent his life honing a single skill since he was a teenager. When Galeota arrived in Miami in the summer of 1991, the city was awash in coke, crack, and drug cash. "They would describe what they looked like," Galeota says. "It was a very violent atmosphere," he says. June 4, 2013 Once they spotted the plane, they changed course which is suspicious for us, said Boatswains Mate 1st Class, Joshua McElhaney with the Coast Guard. South Florida's independent See Photos. Anywhere other than La Joya, this news would be shocking. Galeota's sheer size and mob connections are the only things keeping him from getting shivved in the dark. Explore More. "I'm in survival mode now," Galeota says, adding that he agonizes over being imprisoned for what he believes are unjust charges. A year later, it was $115,000 per month.". "My wife can say she has regrets, but that's bullshit," he says. His father, Arnold, was a strait-laced sales manager but a distant and disapproving dad. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. "But she's never going to forget. 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. 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. It was coke or pimping or messing with the wrong people.. Log In. He was recently sentenced to serve around six years in federal prison. But the deal never happened. Tony Galeota Age And Family. 8:00AM. Making the documentary, he says: I found the story so compelling and so riveting that I was just relentlessly magnetized to it. Fainberg allegedly told undercover cops he had sent coke to Russia in a shipment of frozen shrimp and had bought six $1 million Russian military helicopters for the South Americans. The year before, his father helped him land a job as a wedding DJ. Indeed, Havana Club has already reopened. According to the Coast Guard: It first took place north of the Gulf of Uraba. But he insists that, for once, he has done nothing wrong. But when the house of cards tumbles, John . This business has been very good to me.". Log in or sign up for Facebook to connect with friends, family and people you know. The two were married in 1994 at a wedding full of mobsters. Somewhere between his native Ukraine, Israel, and Russia, he'd shed his trademark long hair and changed his name to Alon Bar. The 43-year-old is shaped like a mini refrigerator: short and squat, with a shaved head and wide-set emerald eyes. Back in the mid-1990s, if you were a Miami mobster seeking girls, guns, cocaine, the services of an arsonist, or muscle to beat down a deadbeat, Ludwig Tarzan Fainberg was your man. Nearly 300 feet long with 10 torpedo tubes (empty in this case), it was diesel but could be converted to electric for silent running. 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. Locked up in one of the world's worst prisons, Tony has to prove his innocence and attempt an audacious escape. Over the years, Galeota saw nearly a dozen shootings at Porky's, some of them fatal. And that's why drug traffickers are in the business - take something that starts off with a value of $5,000 and when you're done selling it at the retail level the value has skyrocketed. By now, she knows of his many infidelities, including that he lived and slept with some of the girls at the Doll House. Miami's underworld may still be seedy, but it has outsourced much of its shadiness to nearby Third-World countries such as Panama. The bartender hid in the bathroom and dialed 911. "Everybody give me your money!" Research > Galeota > Tony Galeota. "We were like: 'We want to get the fuck out of here. 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. 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. "It was puppy love," he says. Controlling it. "They murdered a guy in here a couple of days ago," Tony Galeota says. "I lived it up in Miami," he says. 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. 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. The lessons in crime didn't come fast enough for Galeota to stay out of trouble. 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. Tony Galeota has a wife named Kristy Galeota, with whom he lives. "I just watched Luis blow a guy away," Galeota heard himself say on tape. Become a member to support the independent voice of South Florida "Thank God I'm out," he tells New Times in his first interview since his release. "He had that guido effect on me," she says. Make a one-time donation today for as little as $1. With little oversight, military leaders acted as if they were independent of the government. See Photos. But instead of classical music, his specialty is sex. When Galeota arrived, his mobster reputation preceded him. 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. Sheila Flynn For Dailymail.com 4:00AM. A tattoo of an Italian Mafioso emerges from an extra-large sleeveless T-shirt. Its a lot of f- -king paper. When the bartender told Shea it was last call, he became enraged. The 43-year-old is shaped like a mini refrigerator: short and squat, with a shaved head and wide-set emerald eyes. The two ran Porky's for another decade after Fainberg's deportation. Murdaugh is heckled as he leaves court, Moment teenager crashes into back of lorry after 100mph police race, Ken Bruce finishes his 30-year tenure as host of BBC Radio 2, Family of a 10-month-old baby filmed vaping open up, Missing hiker buried under snow forces arm out to wave to helicopter, Insane moment river of rocks falls onto Malibu Canyon in CA, Fleet-footed cop chases an offender riding a scooter, Ukrainian soldier takes out five tanks with Javelin missiles. She is cute and curvy with dark hair and a button nose. 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 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. 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. A poster on the wall advertises "Lesby Show: 2 Girls per Person" for $350. Make a one-time donation today for as little as $1. Coast Guard members who seized the cocaine said this is what their jobs are all about. The 43-year-old is shaped like a mini refrigerator: short and squat, with a shaved head and wide-set emerald eyes. Instead, he's trapped in a labyrinthine legal system, alone and unable to speak Spanish. It was apparent they had what appeared to be narcotics and after we did the test they had bales on board of pure cocaine, said Boatswains Mate Omar Castro with the U.S. Coast Guard. "My father wasn't in the mob, but his friends were," Tony says. This story has been shared 121,048 times. Join the New Times community and help support Anthony Galeota was born October 17, 1968, on Long Island. We had a $500,000 house, cars, and motorcycles. It was 1990, and Galeota transformed the place by wiring in subwoofers and bringing in New York dancers. As far as he was concerned, he owned the military base. Then they pushed play on a cassette deck. But in South Florida, he was once a strip club king. Russian immigrant Ludwig Fainberg, a.k.a. They finally fled the country this past July, leaving Tony alone. A tattoo of an Italian Mafioso emerges from an extra-large sleeveless T-shirt. 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. He was 31. 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. ", 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. State and local police launched an investigation in February 2009. But in South Florida, he was once a strip club king. Cops had made several controlled buys of drugs. source of local news and culture, Michael E. Miller We have a lot of laughs about it now," he says. In January 2017, Almeida got federally charged by the Drug Enforcement Administration with conspiracy to possess narcotics with intent to distribute. "My wife could have left me. He soon finds himself wanting to be a mobster, and starts running errands for them. Galeota is one of several Americans locked up here. He was a character.. 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. A friend suggested Panama. "I've been in this business my whole life. Its our mission down there besides search and rescue. Tony Galeota. He left, but returned with a gun. "I lived it up in Miami," he says. "We treated the women well.". "He never forced us to do anything. Its a great success overall. Galeota already lived according to a gangster's code. Awards. In January 1997, after he dropped his daughter off at school, Tarzan was arrested and hit with a 30-count federal indictment. Log In. Everything here has a cost.". 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. "There was no transportation, no cops, no nothing," he says. Were out there to cause an effect in the drug industry and I believe we made a little dent on it.. "This case has had a big impact here," says Jos Otero, a reporter for Panamanian newspaper La Prensa. Here, Galeota is just one of 500 prisoners crammed into a filthy cell block designed to hold 200 people. Its about 2,800 kilos, about a ton and a half of contraband. He paid for her to secretly get an abortion. 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. The submarine request, which came from Yester on behalf of the cartel, was not as outrageous as it now sounds. Catherine says she slept with customers because she needed the money to support her family. Indeed, court records show that Seidle was a target of the federal wiretapping investigation. Sometimes we get a little excited when we find the amount of cocaine we found, said Castro. (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. So I was literally stepping over dead bodies of the people who had been shanked and stuff over the course of the night.. 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. Galeota's enemies say that a life of sin has finally caught up with the flesh-peddler. But his mind was on another kind of riches. Unfortunately, Galeota's defense isn't as simple as quoting strippers, says his lawyer, Guillermina McDonald. His mother, Bonnie Gellilti, was "a bit of a criminal," Tony remembers. But Galeota's problems aren't completely behind him. "When you're in La Joya for two years, you get used to that environment," Galeota says. Galeota was hit with felony drug and prostitution charges. And he hopes to open a place in Fort Lauderdale when he's back, Just not a strip club. 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." Thanks to a successful appeal, Almeida served only 18 months for his part in the sub caper. Indeed, Tony would turn Porky's into a moneymaking machine. Everybody wanted to make money. When he was 16, he knocked up his 15-year-old girlfriend at Hauppauge High School. In the meantime, he's spending time with his wife and kids. The last one locked the door. But he was too shell-shocked to take up his attorney's offer for a ride to a nice hotel. Tarzan and one of his partners, Fat Tony Galeota, had opened a strip club in Panama similar to a previous enterprise in Miami called Porkys but they landed behind bars in Central America. All he needed now were the prostitutes. "They shot him in the middle of the night," Galeota continues quietly, "and buried his body behind the pavilion.". I'm kind of stuck with it. Prosecutors charged Galeota and Fainberg with not only drug dealing but also human trafficking. Galeota says the police had already gotten what they wanted: Porky's demise. Panama had gone from paradise to purgatory. Finally, on May 23, the gate on Galeota's cramped cell swung open, and he was free to go. Panama's judicial system is outdated and overburdened, she says. More detailed reports on the crimes weren't available. Sign Up. 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. 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. "A family type thing, like an ale house with wings and beer," he says. 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. It is not known when he was born or his current age. Reborn behind bars. Moreover, trafficking prostitutes and drugs and involvement in organized crime are some serious charges.". Police repeatedly raided the club, yet Galeota escaped unscathed every time. Tony Galletta. TV-14 | 06.05.2013. Instead, they eat rice for lunch and dinner, drink dirty river water, and use a hole in the ground for a toilet. "Running a club in that neighborhood, win or lose, you've got to fight.". "I wouldn't leave a dog in that prison, let alone my husband.". "They shot him in the middle of the night," Galeota continues quietly, "and buried his body behind the pavilion.". Most of them were robberies gone wrong or simple revenge. He and Kristy struck up an unlikely romance. It wasn't until he ordered some Italian food and a cold Guinness that he finally felt like he was free. 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. . Kristy was able to pay a lawyer $500 to get her son released, but there was no bond for Galeota's drug offense. Its Colombian dancers were in Panama on six-month tourist visas, weren't licensed as prostitutes, and weren't getting required weekly health checkups. A judge eventually dropped the human trafficking charge, but Galeota still rotted in his sordid cell alongside insects the size of small dogs. So the translator said she couldn't take a shower, didn't show up, and the case was delayed. "Another night at Porky's, another shooting," he remembers now from his prison cell in Panama. Business was better, but it still wouldn't make him rich. Get the latest updates in news, food, music and culture, and receive special offers direct to your inbox. "They had what seemed like a dynamite case, but it has ended up in pieces.". When he left to open a bona fide brothel in Panama, Galeota thought the country's lax prostitution laws would make him rich. 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. If Galeota is freed, it will be a major blow for Panama's prostitution crackdown. local Journalism in South Florida. That didnt stop Russell from trying to get them on board with doing a film about the submarine deal. Banks seized all seven of his apartments. A kilo of cocaine in Panama costs much less - about $5,000 per. They were all together when Tony worked for the Russin mobsters in Porky's club as its manager. 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. Miami mobster Tony Galeota is locked up in Panama after being framed for drug dealing and human trafficking. "I was just numb.". Guards with machine guns man rusty metal towers. Eventually, however, he made his way to Tarzan. Tony Galeota Tony Galeota. 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. Through the air plane window, Tony Galeota could see the city's colonial churches glow like polished gold. Even though Yester may have suspected that the cartel was after him, he couldnt help but try to get his hands on the remaining $25 million. Theyre nice guys [the cartel members], and I didnt ask what they needed the submarine for, Tarzan tells The Post, speaking on a crackling phone connection from Russia. 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. 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. His Doll House dream began at Porky's. He was 31. For a while, Panama's pay-to-play culture suited Galeota just fine. Behind him, 12-foot-high fences topped with spools of barbed wire frame a muddy soccer field. He raises his eyebrows and looks upwards to the left to emphasize just how flabbergasted he was with Mishas counter question. 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. One scammer stole from another scammer; of course I accept it, he says. By the mid-'90s, Galeota had turned Porky's into a one-stop shop for strippers, sex, and serious drugs. When he was 16, he knocked up his 15-year-old girlfriend at Hauppauge High School. He ogled the women standing on corners in their underwear and high heels. Instead, they eat rice for lunch and dinner, drink dirty river water, and use a hole in the ground for a toilet. These interdiction's were part of Operation Martillo, an international operation to fight illegal trafficking. One man stabbed someone over a $10 debt. There is no rehabilitation here," he says. 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). 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 year before, his father helped him land a job as a wedding DJ. Bonnie also shoplifted booze to sustain her hard drinking habit. ", 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/. 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. He bought seven properties pretty much sight unseen.". "I don't care how strong you are; that's going to affect your marriage," she says. Is this possible, to buy a military submarine - used one? And he said, What a question! The year before, his father helped him land a job as a wedding DJ. "My wife could have left me. And when his mother was distraught over a broken washing machine, he filled the house with new appliances. 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.
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