Through the air plane window, Tony Galeota could see the city's colonial churches glow like polished gold. "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. By now, she knows of his many infidelities, including that he lived and slept with some of the girls at the Doll House. It continued at another local strip club, called Quarterbacks Playmates Lounge. Tony Galletta. Again, Tony's friends in New York told him where to go. June 4, 2013 With dark hair and pale, wide-set eyes, teenage Tony resembled a stocky Frank Sinatra. 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. "Then they'd tell me: 'They are as good as dead.'". "They would describe what they looked like," Galeota says. He sold the shop and in 2010 opened Bongos, a restaurant serving wings and beer. 4:00AM. Within weeks of its April 2011 opening, the club was raking in $6,000 on good nights. "I just watched Luis blow a guy away," Galeota heard himself say on tape. "Luis pulled out a .38 and shot the guy in the chest. The year before, his father helped him land a job as a wedding DJ. Filmography (by Job) Trailers and Videos. "It was a nightmare in there.". Locked Up Abroad 151M subscribers Miami mobster Tony Galeota is a strip-club supremo. And theyre like, F*** yeah, lets do it. "A family type thing, like an ale house with wings and beer," he says. 16:56 GMT 13 Mar 2018 They also discovered the club was registered as a massage parlor, not a brothel. Then they pushed play on a cassette deck. Join the New Times community and help support But the story of how the documentary got made is nearly as crazy as the caper plot itself. Use tab to navigate through the menu items. They taught him the rules, the most important of which Galeota took to heart: "You can have your girlfriends on the side," he remembers hearing, "but never leave your wife.". The charismatic teenager sold the stolen suits or electronics at strip clubs or used-car lots. But when he opens a new club in Panama City, the competition isn't happy and frames him for drug dealing. Even then, however, he couldn't sleep. Galeota's enemies say that a life of sin has finally caught up with the flesh-peddler. Has a stint in Panamanian prison reformed Miami's most notorious strip club manager? "I was always looking for their approval," he says, "but I never got that. Galeota saw an opportunity. But he was too shell-shocked to take up his attorney's offer for a ride to a nice hotel. The irony is not lost on Galeota that after a life of crime in Miami, he was arrested in Panama just as he was going legit. Almeida, back in Moscow, trying to work out yet another deal and not realizing that this one had already soured, managed to temporarily elude arrest. A bartender characterized Porkys as the kind of place where you could get killed. Babushka was so notorious that FBI agents who described Tarzan as a matre d for criminals bugged the booths there. They put a hit out on him when he disappeared with the money, while Juan and Tarzan took the legal fall in Miami. The year before, his father helped him land a job as a wedding DJ. "My wife could have left me. "That's the goal," is all he'll offer. "It was puppy love," he says. 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. Here, Galeota is just one of 500 prisoners crammed into a filthy cell block designed to hold 200 people. This story has been shared 121,048 times. or. He was a big, big fish.". Join the New Times community and help support The Coast Guard said four suspected smugglers were taken into custody and 32 bales of cocaine were found in the water. I know its gonna be a strange question. As far as he was concerned, he owned the military base. "They had what seemed like a dynamite case, but it has ended up in pieces.". The message was that the cocaine traffickers would kill Yesters family members. But then the country's corrupt system turned on them. "A family type thing, like an ale house with wings and beer," he says. Its a great success overall. "This case has had a big impact here," says Jos Otero, a reporter for Panamanian newspaper La Prensa. (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. But the hassle had taken its toll on him. Anthony Galeota was born October 17, 1968, on Long Island. ), 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 Galeota stood up, he checked his T-shirt for bullet holes, but found none. He and Fainberg were on their way to riches thanks to powerful friends and legalized prostitution. Juan felt like he had no choice, says Russell. "She would use shoe polish to change our driver's licenses so we could go to clubs and drink when we were 15. "This case has had a big impact here," says Jos Otero, a reporter for Panamanian newspaper La Prensa. This time, I'm innocent.". This business has been very good to me.". While Galeota avoided testifying, Fainberg faced 30 counts including racketeering and conspiracy to traffic cocaine and heroin. Police repeatedly raided the club, yet Galeota escaped unscathed every time. He was soon promoted from DJing weddings to robbing delivery trucks for the Paccione clan (which federal court records tie to the infamous Gambino crime family). Like a real-life godfather, Galeota weathered it all. Ten million dollars really feels like 10 million dollars, he gushes in the movie. Galeota has seen several murders. 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. one of the kids shouted as he pulled a handkerchief over his face and wildly swung a revolver. When he left to open a bona fide brothel in Panama, Galeota thought the country's lax prostitution laws would make him rich. He ogled the women standing on corners in their underwear and high heels. ", McDonald has succeeded, however, in chipping away at the case, persuading a judge three weeks ago to drop the trafficking charge on a technicality. 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. Like a concert pianist, Tony Galeota has spent his life honing a single skill since he was a teenager. In the distance, La Cordillera de San Blas cuts through the Panamanian jungle like a serrated knife. Greed got the better of him. When Bill Seidle died, Galeota knew the club's days were numbered. "Like me, he was a black sheep who could do nothing right.". "They murdered a guy in here a couple of days ago," Tony Galeota says. Of the $10 million, he said, I cannot f- -king believe it how fast I spend it.. "Whenever there is an American businessman involved in crime here in Panama, it becomes an important case. "My wife can say she has regrets, but that's bullshit," he says. We've been here for two years!' 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. Tony Galeota has a wife named Kristy Galeota, with whom he lives. He was very serious and said he would look into it. People named Tony Galeota Find your friends on Facebook Log in or sign up for Facebook to connect with friends, family and people you know. I'm kind of stuck with it. #Torture #PanamGovernment #LaJoyaprisonPanam #PresidentVarela #Panam #Corruption. Miami's underworld may still be seedy, but it has outsourced much of its shadiness to nearby Third-World countries such as Panama. Meet me in Africa for a cup of coffee tomorrow.. "I lived it up in Miami," he says. "When you're in La Joya for two years, you get used to that environment," Galeota says. The gig introduced him to a lifelong vice. 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. It is not known when he was born or his current age. Become a member to support the independent voice of South Florida 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. Miami mobster Tony Galeota is locked up in Panama after being framed for drug dealing and human trafficking. People named Tony Galeta. 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. Behind him, 12-foot-high fences topped with spools of barbed wire frame a muddy soccer field. ", Coast Guard Offloads More Than $93 Million In Cocaine, Miami Beach. Tony Galeota lived in 1954, at address, Massachusetts. He'd already invested in seven apartments in Panama City and rented a storefront on the capital's seediest street, where prostitution was legal. 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. Let me check.. 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. View the profiles of people named Anthony Galeota. "She hasn't worked for 15 years. Episode 5: Spain /Sold My Soul Kenyan court is shown vital evidence ignored by police two years after his arrest over 4.5m cocaine haul, Body armor-clad Cancun cops are 'suspended' after posing for pictures with topless tourists on the beach, Isabel Oakeshott receives 'menacing' message from Matt Hancock, Ken Bruce: 'I always wanted to be a radio presenter from about 15', Pavement where disabled woman gestured at cyclist before fatal crash, Pro-Ukrainian drone lands on Russian spy planes exposing location, 'Buster is next!' Become a member to support the independent voice of South Florida The FBI swooped in January 21, surrounding the club and arresting Fainberg. And there was absolutely no bullshit. But instead of classical music, his specialty is sex. Inside the prison, the sign is a running joke. "I brought in music and women," Galeota says. And he hopes to open a place in Fort Lauderdale when he's back. MICHAEL GALEOTA OBITUARY. And, above all, selling it. When the bartender told Shea it was last call, he became enraged. State and local police launched an investigation in February 2009. "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. The Porky's party nearly came to a sudden end in early 1997. 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. "But I've always paid for everything, either with stitches in my head, concussions, or jail time. We both understand that.". By "It was a nightmare in there. I definitely want his number and so I began chasing it from there and actually jumped on a plane, went down and smuggled myself into this Panamanian prison to meet with him.. Tony Galeota's age is expected to be 52. 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. Its about 2,800 kilos, about a ton and a half of contraband. He paid for her to secretly get an abortion. "The investigation was so poorly handled and rushed," says Otero, the journalist. 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. ", After bribing half the guards at La Joya, Galeota was taken to an immigration holding center in Panama City where he and four codefendants were kept for four more days. 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 also found himself in the back of an unmarked FBI car. He hired 'Fat Tony' Galeota as Porky's manager. 4:00AM. His father, Arnold, was a strait-laced sales manager but a distant and disapproving dad. The heavy-set Italian even signed a release. But he insists that, for once, he has done nothing wrong. Girls charged $150 or more for sex. Galeota is no angelic Andy Dufresne, the main character in Shawshank who serves two decades behind bars for a crime he didn't commit. "She would use shoe polish to change our driver's licenses so we could go to clubs and drink when we were 15. Galeota and his "girls" in the Doll House, before the bust. The club was very successful. I have to tell you, all my enemies are dead, and Im happy, he says in the documentary. local news and culture, Michael E. Miller Miami's independent source of Cops had made several controlled buys of drugs. "This case has had a big impact here," says Jos Otero, a reporter for Panamanian newspaper La Prensa. But the deal never happened. Indeed, Tony would turn Porky's into a moneymaking machine. Michael Galeota, who starred on the Disney Channel's "The Jersey" died Sunday, according to Variety. The domestic bliss lasted only a couple of weeks. That didnt stop Russell from trying to get them on board with doing a film about the submarine deal. The 43-year-old is shaped like a mini refrigerator: short and squat, with a shaved head and wide-set emerald eyes. Galeota jumped at the deal. His mother, Bonnie Gellilti, was "a bit of a criminal," Tony remembers. Over the course of three months, undercover detectives made dozens of visits, tallying up a vivid snapshot of the club: "15 purchases of cocaine, four purchases of MDMA, one purchase of Xanax, one purchase of marijuana, 18 solicitations for prostitution, [and] 20 lewd acts.". The bartender hid in the bathroom and dialed 911. He raises his eyebrows and looks upwards to the left to emphasize just how flabbergasted he was with Mishas counter question. If only there were a place where prostitution was legal, he thought, a city full of beautiful women like Miami, but no rules. He might have sold them the submarine, taken the money and walked away with the money.. And last year, Yester was finally arrested in Rome on charges unrelated to the submarine while en route to a wedding. For a while, Panama's pay-to-play culture suited Galeota just fine. They are willing to assume the massive risk of getting caught and going to prison for decades, because if they make just one big score they're millionaires. Locked up in one of the world's worst prisons, Tony has to prove his innocence and attempt an audacious escape. Sometimes we get a little excited when we find the amount of cocaine we found, said Castro. 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 was puppy love," he says. "We were like: 'We want to get the fuck out of here. In the distance, La Cordillera de San Blas cuts through the Panamanian jungle like a serrated knife. Galeota is one of several Americans locked up here. He soon finds himself wanting to be a mobster, and starts running errands for them. But all the cops found were five grams of weed, a bottle of Viagra, and some mysterious yellow pills. When traffickers balked at the price, Yester reminded them that it could hold 40 tons of cocaine and would pay for itself quickly. "I lived it up in Miami," he says. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. Michael Galeota, who starred on the Disney Channel's "The Jersey" died Sunday, according to Variety. Is this possible, to buy a military submarine - used one? And he said, What a question! A tattoo of an Italian Mafioso emerges from an extra-large sleeveless T-shirt. In the second interdiction, a Customs plane spotted another suspicious boat off the coast of Panama on August 28th. Rats, roaches, and beetles the size of Chihuahuas crawl over inmates at night. "They murdered a guy in here a couple of days ago," Tony Galeota says. 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. But he insists that, for once, he has done nothing wrong. 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. 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. Instead, they eat rice for lunch and dinner, drink dirty river water, and use a hole in the ground for a toilet. Moreover, trafficking prostitutes and drugs and involvement in organized crime are some serious charges.". It was 1990, and Galeota transformed the place by wiring in subwoofers and bringing in New York dancers. Galeota's wife Kristy comments "Porky's was definitely a place you could get killed." It had been ten years since U.S. A sign on the latter reads, "District Attorney for Drugs: Do Not Enter." independent local journalism in Miami. Tony Galeota Tony Galeota. "My father wasn't in the mob, but his friends were," Tony says. On Friday, May 17, Galeota got word that the judge had also dismissed the drug charge because of lack of evidence. (A New York Police Department spokesman says records from that far back aren't available.) But Monday morning, when it came time to walk out of La Joya, there was no vehicle waiting. "She would use shoe polish to change our driver's licenses so we could go to clubs and drink when we were 15. Anthony Galeota was born October 17, 1968, on Long Island. Most of them were robberies gone wrong or simple revenge. I was literally on a press tour for the last film, and I was in New York doing interviews and stuff I called the producers and said, Do you think we can get a million dollars in the next five days?. The heavy-set Italian even signed a release. Panama had gone from paradise to purgatory. Then an old friend showed up.
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