By In the early 1990s, three friends set out to hustle the Russian mob, the Cali cartel and the DEA for the score of a lifetime. Sixteen months later, the two men have yet to appear in court. Just not a strip club. The crew boarded the 165-foot Panamanian-flagged coastal freighter Hope II. But when the house of cards tumbles, John . On a crowded balcony overlooking La Joya, Galeota describes the past 16 months as a nightmare. When he was 16, he knocked up his 15-year-old girlfriend at Hauppauge High School. Tony Galeto. Facebook Email or phone Password Forgot account? "They knew some Russian guy named Tarzan who had just opened up a club in Miami called Porky's. Its a great success overall. 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. 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. 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 message was that the cocaine traffickers would kill Yesters family members. "They murdered a guy in here a couple of days ago," Tony Galeota says. For a while, Panama's pay-to-play culture suited Galeota just fine. Instead, they eat rice for lunch and dinner, drink dirty river water, and use a hole in the ground for a toilet. 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. and help keep the future of New Times, Use of this website constitutes acceptance of our. But all the cops found were five grams of weed, a bottle of Viagra, and some mysterious yellow pills. Nobody was impressed more than Kristy Sharpe, an 18-year-old waitress from Orlando with blond hair, blue eyes, and lightly freckled skin. Join the New Times community and help support independent "There were beautiful girls, just walking the streets, giving blowjobs for $10 or $15.". "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. But the men kept in touch as Russell pursued other projects, with Tarzan sending random messages such as Christmas greetings until he finally sent the email the filmmaker had been awaiting (although he couldnt have guessed the other crazy details in the communication. Its about 2,800 kilos, about a ton and a half of contraband. The American says he's giving up the strip club and brothel businesses. His mother, Bonnie Gellilti, was "a bit of a criminal," Tony remembers. 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved, Texas man busted in death of DJ galpal found stuffed in suitcase in Colombia, Inside the luxe lives of El Chapo's sons including jailbird Ovidio Guzmn Lpez, Arizona officials say Mexican cartels control US border: 'Ticking time bomb', Passengers on Aeromexico flight crouch in fear as plane caught in cartel crossfire: video. And when his mother was distraught over a broken washing machine, he filled the house with new appliances. 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. And, above all, selling it. "Whenever there is an American businessman involved in crime here in Panama, it becomes an important case. But the story of how the documentary got made is nearly as crazy as the caper plot itself. Coast Guard members who seized the cocaine said this is what their jobs are all about. Then an old friend showed up. Filmography (by Job) Trailers and Videos. "I wouldn't leave a dog in that prison, let alone my husband.". "My father wasn't in the mob, but his friends were," Tony says. But bloodshed would follow them to Miami. But Galeota was convinced the cops were bluffing and refused to cooperate. The fear was well founded, considering what went down when Tarzan linked up with Cuban outlaws Juan Almeida and Nelson Tony Yester. Panama's judicial system is outdated and overburdened, she says. Explore More. Thats how they eventually uncovered the plot to sell a submarine to the Cali cartel, orchestrated by Tarzan, exotic car importer Juan Almeida and Nelson Tony Yester, a Cuban immigrant believed to be a trained intelligence operative who remains an international fugitive to this day. Panama had gone from paradise to purgatory. I said, Thank you, Cali cartel. 16:56 GMT 13 Mar 2018 In the distance, La Cordillera de San Blas cuts through the Panamanian jungle like a serrated knife. "But I did it for my child.". Born on June 3, 1924 at Hartford. Sheila Flynn For Dailymail.com A sign on the latter reads, "District Attorney for Drugs: Do Not Enter." He headed right to his beloved Miami, Florida. "My father wasn't in the mob, but his friends were," Tony says. For the most part, Doll House dancers agree. When he left to open a bona fide brothel in Panama, Galeota thought the country's lax prostitution laws would make him rich. Tarzan eventually testified against Juan and was deported to Israel, where he recanted his testimony meaning Juans conviction for conspiracy to traffic cocaine was overturned and he went free. and help keep the future of New Times, Use of this website constitutes acceptance of our, From Porky's to Panamanian Prison: Web Extra. "We just meshed," she says. He called his cartel contacts and arranged to meet them in the pickup area of the Madrid train station. "When you're in La Joya for two years, you get used to that environment," Galeota says. Tarzan was released from the Panamanian prison in around 2016 and has since built a side career out of playing tough guys in gangster flicks shot in Russia, where he now lives. "They shot him in the middle of the night," Galeota continues quietly, "and buried his body behind the pavilion.". I gave each of my kids a Rolex when they were 5 years old. Biography. See also: "From Porky's to Panamanian Prison: Web Extra.". During the Doll House raid, they found marked bills in the register and several grams of pot on a promoter. Even then, however, he couldn't sleep. Bonnie also shoplifted booze to sustain her hard drinking habit. Tony Kaleta. "That's the goal," is all he'll offer. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. On Friday, May 17, Galeota got word that the judge had also dismissed the drug charge because of lack of evidence. "But she's never going to forget. Sign Up. Photo Gallery. A tattoo of an Italian Mafioso emerges from an extra-large sleeveless T-shirt. Galeota is no angelic Andy Dufresne, the main character in Shawshank who serves two decades behind bars for a crime he didn't commit. Kristy and his sons hid in a shabby, poorly protected office. "I lived it up in Miami," he says. More than anything, Galeota is grateful that his family kept faith in him. But his mind was on another kind of riches. "The investigation was so poorly handled and rushed," says Otero, the journalist. He created a souped-up cigarette boat that went for $2 million and was presumably used to transport cocaine. and help keep the future of New Times, Use of this website constitutes acceptance of our, running Miami's most infamous strip club, Porky's, 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. We travelled all the time. 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. The 43-year-old is shaped like a mini refrigerator: short and squat, with a shaved head and wide-set emerald eyes. But instead of classical music, his specialty is sex. When the bartender told Shea it was last call, he became enraged. He was a big, big fish.". "Everybody give me your money!" 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. There is no rehabilitation here," he says. This time, I'm innocent.". "They shot him in the middle of the night," Galeota continues quietly, "and buried his body behind the pavilion.". Galeota is one of several Americans locked up here. They were very compliant to everything we asked of them, said McElhaney. A judge eventually dropped the human trafficking charge, but Galeota still rotted in his sordid cell alongside insects the size of small dogs. Back in South Florida, Kristy Galeota vacillates between outrage and empathy for her husband. 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. His father, Arnold, was a strait-laced sales manager but a distant and disapproving dad. The 43-year-old is shaped like a mini refrigerator: short and squat, with a shaved head and wide-set emerald eyes. A tattoo of an Italian Mafioso emerges from an extra-large sleeveless T-shirt. Galeota believes that his arrest has little to do with a renewed commitment to the law in Panama. I have to tell you, all my enemies are dead, and Im happy, he says in the documentary. "My wife is never going to completely trust me. So we met with a realtor, got high, and Tony got stupid with money. source of local news and culture, Michael E. Miller It was February 2011, and he was preparing to open the Doll House, his own strip club in Panama. Although he knows he could receive the death penalty, the money is too tempting to resist. Prostitution is legal in Panama," he complains. But Tony had darker secrets. 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. 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. "I was just numb.". "A family type thing, like an ale house with wings and beer," he says. Galeota's enemies say that a life of sin has finally caught up with the flesh-peddler. By then, the club's criminal clientele and Fainberg's increasingly lavish lifestyle had raised eyebrows. His attorney has warned him that prosecutors will likely appeal, so he plans to stay in Panama until his case is resolved. "But I've always paid for everything, either with stitches in my head, concussions, or jail time. 8:00AM. 4:00AM. local news and culture, Michael E. Miller "There was no transportation, no cops, no nothing," he says. "They would describe what they looked like," Galeota says. As for his career, his only oath is that he won't let his sons follow his example. "It is with tremendous heartfelt sadness to announce the passing of Michael James Gal Galeota was crammed into a sweltering holding cell with 150 others. (A New York Police Department spokesman says records from that far back aren't available.) Advertisement. But Tarzan a seasoned wheeler-dealer, strip club owner and former mob enforcer took it in his stride and went back to his partners with the response. "She would use shoe polish to change our driver's licenses so we could go to clubs and drink when we were 15. His father, Arnold, was a strait-laced sales manager but a distant and disapproving dad. Galeota and his "girls" in the Doll House, before the bust. During a visit last month, a New Times reporter witnessed one police official receive a $20 bill in a barely disguised handshake. Get the latest updates in news, food, music and culture, and receive special offers direct to your inbox. Instead, Galeota admits he's done bad things, such as. Sometimes we get a little excited when we find the amount of cocaine we found, said Castro. These interdiction's were part of Operation Martillo, an international operation to fight illegal trafficking. More detailed reports on the crimes weren't available. 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. It was coke or pimping or messing with the wrong people.. The value then triples to $100,000 per kilo at the street level when it's busted down for individual use. He raises his eyebrows and looks upwards to the left to emphasize just how flabbergasted he was with Mishas counter question. And like the Italian-American crooner, he loved women a little too much. When his younger brother was molested, he beat the suspected perpetrator to a pulp. When he heard that his old partner in crime from Porky's had moved to Panama, he flew in to meet with Galeota. He was 31. 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. 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. People named Tony Galeta. "He had that guido effect on me," she says. 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. "She would use shoe polish to change our driver's licenses so we could go to clubs and drink when we were 15. Tony Galletta. He bought seven properties pretty much sight unseen.". Kristy was a self-described "firecracker" who had also escaped from an abusive home and wanted attention. Police repeatedly raided the club, yet Galeota escaped unscathed every time. As the couple drove south on I-95, they thought they were leaving the worst behind them. Galeota yelled. In January 1997, after he dropped his daughter off at school, Tarzan was arrested and hit with a 30-count federal indictment. 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.. Over the years, Galeota saw nearly a dozen shootings at Porky's, some of them fatal. 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've done a lot of shady things in the States," he admits. See Photos. Within weeks of its April 2011 opening, the club was raking in $6,000 on good nights. "Whenever there is an American businessman involved in crime here in Panama, it becomes an important case. "But I've always paid for everything, either with stitches in my head, concussions, or jail time. And multiple sources close to Fainberg say he was pressured to rat out Seidle but refused. "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. 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. "That's obstruction of justice.". In the distance, La Cordillera de San Blas cuts through the Panamanian jungle like a serrated knife. "Thank God I'm out," he tells New Times in his first interview since his release. There was nothing unusual about it. Banks seized all seven of his apartments. Anthony Galeota was born October 17, 1968, on Long Island. As he sweated in jail, Galeota's Panamanian empire crumbled. Police again surrounded Porky's in the early hours of May 9, 2009. "I brought in music and women," Galeota says. Update information for Tony Galeota . "I thought I would kick up my heels together like 'Oh my God, I'm finally out,'" he says. The lessons in crime didn't come fast enough for Galeota to stay out of trouble. 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. When his dad lost his job, Tony paid the bills. Tony and Kristy were shocked and out of a job. "I couldn't take all the people who wanted to come.". When one inmate killed another, the dead man's gang on the outside murdered the inmate's entire family, Galeota says. And then Russell got a text message out of the blue. Photo courtesy of Josh Weiss A prisoner poses with a gun smuggled into La Joya with help from guards. Upon seeing 10 thugs rush the vehicle and hijack it with the unsuspecting passenger in back, Yester realized that the remaining cash would not be forthcoming. Join the New Times community and help support 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. If Galeota is freed, it will be a major blow for Panama's prostitution crackdown. 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. Guards with machine guns man rusty metal towers. Awards. It had been ten years since U.S. Can he prove his innocence and escape? Controlling it. "It was so slow I couldn't take it," he says. His Doll House dream began at Porky's. Girls charged $150 or more for sex. "When you go to prison, it's like dying, but you get to see your own funeral," Galeota says. He decked out the Doll House with five upstairs rooms equipped with king-size beds, mirrors, lube, condoms, and showers, and brought in dozens of Colombian women, who could earn $120 split with the club for an hour of sex. At night, the guards lock the gate and leave, turning over control of each cell block to prisoners. ", 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. Seidle was never charged with a crime. 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. Bonnie also shoplifted booze to sustain her hard drinking habit. With dark hair and pale, wide-set eyes, teenage Tony resembled a stocky Frank Sinatra. He didn't stay long. Skip Ancestry main menu Main Menu But Tony had darker secrets. "Maybe we didn't have the permits we were supposed to have, but we're foreigners who didn't understand the rules.". October 4, 2012 Its Colombian dancers were in Panama on six-month tourist visas, weren't licensed as prostitutes, and weren't getting required weekly health checkups. But their courtship was cut short. Get the latest updates in news, food, music and culture, and receive special offers direct to your inbox. See Photos. 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. Tony was a tough, muscular little shit back then. On Friday, May 17, Galeota got word that the judge had also dismissed the drug charge because of lack of evidence. ", "You hear that?" 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. she scoffs. He paid for her to secretly get an abortion. South Florida's independent The Doll House couldn't expand fast enough to meet the influx of sex tourists. He'd already invested in seven apartments in Panama City and rented a storefront on the capital's seediest street, where prostitution was legal. Panama became Galeota's personal paradise. 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. They finally fled the country this past July, leaving Tony alone. Furious and Busted Rick Cedar steals radios to support his family. And twice they had given up. Greed got the better of him. S10 E10 - Miami Mobster Take Down Tony Galeota is framed for drug trafficking in Panama City. But then the country's corrupt system turned on them. Family members can also bring them food and clean water, however, and inmates bribe guards to smuggle in additional items. "It was a nightmare in there. "It was a very violent atmosphere," he says.
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