"My family didn't care; they took it," Galeota says of the stolen goods. 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. Panama had gone from paradise to purgatory. And multiple sources close to Fainberg say he was pressured to rat out Seidle but refused. 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. He and Fainberg were on their way to riches thanks to powerful friends and legalized prostitution. 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. He paid for her to secretly get an abortion. 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. We travelled all the time. Here, Galeota is just one of 500 prisoners crammed into a filthy cell block designed to hold 200 people. Facilitating it. 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. The gig introduced him to a lifelong vice. Wrongly imprisoned. Tarzans on board and essentially youre in the movie, one way or another. Then I ended up spending a great deal of what I like to call social engineering, which is kind of like the hanging out with all these guys theyre all very secretive cats with these very sketchy kind of criminal pasts. "It was a nightmare in there.". And there was absolutely no bullshit. Tony Gogetta. 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. But in South Florida, he was once a strip club king. 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. While Kristy was still in the States, he lived with five of his Colombian prostitutes. Kristy was able to pay a lawyer $500 to get her son released, but there was no bond for Galeota's drug offense. Anywhere other than La Joya, this news would be shocking. While out of sight, he phoned his guy and lied about being in a particular taxi cab. The crew boarded the 165-foot Panamanian-flagged coastal freighter Hope II. He was recently sentenced to serve around six years in federal prison. But when Galeota was arrested June 19, 2011, and charged with trafficking drugs and women, he was just as innocent as Stephen King's saintly inmate. A sign on the latter reads, "District Attorney for Drugs: Do Not Enter." Although he admits that "running around whoring and casinoing wasn't worth it," he can't promise to be faithful to the woman who has stood beside him. Make a one-time donation today for as little as $1. When one inmate killed another, the dead man's gang on the outside murdered the inmate's entire family, Galeota says. Its Colombian dancers were in Panama on six-month tourist visas, weren't licensed as prostitutes, and weren't getting required weekly health checkups. By Explore More. When Bill Seidle died, Galeota knew the club's days were numbered. "They would describe what they looked like," Galeota says. So the translator said she couldn't take a shower, didn't show up, and the case was delayed. In the second interdiction, a Customs plane spotted another suspicious boat off the coast of Panama on August 28th. But Fainberg wasn't in town to catch up. They had girls in every city. "But I've always paid for everything, either with stitches in my head, concussions, or jail time. Police repeatedly raided the club, yet Galeota escaped unscathed every time. "Another night at Porky's, another shooting," he remembers now from his prison cell in Panama. 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. If any official asks you to pay for anything, please report them.". "We were like: 'We want to get the fuck out of here. 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. "I've done a lot of shady things in the States," he admits. A dozen plainclothes cops poured in with pistols drawn. As Shea tried to pull the panties off one of the dancers, he heard police sirens in the distance and bolted. As he contemplates the question, Galeota watches his fellow inmates kick a soccer ball across La Joya's putrid playground. He was 31. Galeota's wife Kristy comments "Porky's was definitely a place you could get killed." If anything, Galeota's life got even more out of control after Fainberg's arrest. "It was a nightmare in there. Like a concert pianist, Tony Galeota has spent his life honing a single skill since he was a teenager. 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. They went Maserati shopping by helicopter so they could look at the cars from the air. "That's the goal," is all he'll offer. 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. "I've done a lot of shady things in the States," he admits. But bloodshed would follow them to Miami. This business has been very good to me.". He raises his eyebrows and looks upwards to the left to emphasize just how flabbergasted he was with Mishas counter question. Galeota's sheer size and mob connections are the only things keeping him from getting shivved in the dark. Of the $10 million, he said, I cannot f- -king believe it how fast I spend it.. The year before, his father helped him land a job as a wedding DJ. Prosecutors charged Galeota and Fainberg with not only drug dealing but also human trafficking. He was, after all, working with an American playboy in Miami and a fugitive Cuban spy to procure this submarine. Eventually, he moved two dozen ladies to Panama City. "I thought I would kick up my heels together like 'Oh my God, I'm finally out,'" he says. Greed got the better of him. He was a character.. Like a concert pianist, Tony Galeota has spent his life honing a single skill since he was a teenager. 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. All he needed now were the prostitutes. Days go by without water, and when it does arrive, it's turbid sludge from a nearby river. Log In or Sign Up Tonia Galeota See Photos Antonio Galeota See Photos Tony Galeota See Photos Toni Galea See Photos Toni Colletto See Photos Toni Torres Galea But the deal never happened. Michael Galeota, who starred on the Disney Channel's "The Jersey" died Sunday, according to Variety. "But she's never going to forget. If Galeota is freed, it will be a major blow for Panama's prostitution crackdown. His government protection would evaporate, the Doll House would be raided, his investments would be stolen, and he would be arrested. Behind him, 12-foot-high fences topped with spools of barbed wire frame a muddy soccer field. This time, I'm innocent.". Anthony Galeota was born October 17, 1968, on Long Island. His father, Arnold, was a strait-laced sales manager but a distant and disapproving dad. His mother, Bonnie Gellilti, was "a bit of a criminal," Tony remembers. 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. Instead, they eat rice for lunch and dinner, drink dirty river water, and use a hole in the ground for a toilet. 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. When Seidle died in 2008, Porky's political protection followed the 82-year-old to the grave. The two were married in 1994 at a wedding full of mobsters. Galeota was crammed into a sweltering holding cell with 150 others. "When you go to prison, it's like dying, but you get to see your own funeral," Galeota says. Between the restaurant and the Doll House, he was making enough to retire in five years. 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. You could not mislead him in any way or you could tell that the consequences could be serious, but I loved him. (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. "When you're in La Joya for two years, you get used to that environment," Galeota says. I hoped to walk away from the deal with $10 million.. Indeed, court records show that Seidle was a target of the federal wiretapping investigation. Anthony Galeota was born October 17, 1968, on Long Island. Controlling it. He might have sold them the submarine, taken the money and walked away with the money.. Galeota already lived according to a gangster's code. "They murdered a guy in here a couple of days ago," Tony Galeota says. "There was no transportation, no cops, no nothing," he says. 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. Indeed, Tony would turn Porky's into a moneymaking machine. 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. All the services here are free. 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. Michael Galeota, who starred on the Disney Channel's "The Jersey" died Sunday, according to Variety. The nightmare deepened for Galeota. But instead of classical music, his specialty is sex. Russian immigrant Ludwig Fainberg, a.k.a. She is cute and curvy with dark hair and a button nose. And she launched drunken tirades at Tony after baseball games, no matter how well the all-star shortstop performed. Create a free family tree for yourself or for Tony Galeota and we'll search for valuable new information for you. His father, Arnold, was a strait-laced sales manager but a distant and disapproving dad. Over the years, Galeota saw nearly a dozen shootings at Porky's, some of them fatal. "My father wasn't in the mob, but his friends were," Tony says. "She would use shoe polish to change our driver's licenses so we could go to clubs and drink when we were 15. So looking back on it and all the hijinks, from being smuggled in to a Panamanian prison to crossing paths with the FSB in Moscow to being met in a Porsche Cayenne by Tony Yester and driving away thinking: Okay, the CIA, DEA, FBI and US Marshals have been looking for this guy for 25 years, and Im in his car by myself with no notion of where were going or when were coming back. In retrospect, its like, Im a moron, but at the time I was full-throttle chase the story., Of the finished product Operation Odessa, he says: Hopefully, its a rocknroll thrill ride into the underworld, where you get a passport to a life and lifestyle and characters that you didnt even imagine existed much less having a ringside seat with them., The comments below have not been moderated, By or. We have a lot of laughs about it now," he says. In the distance, La Cordillera de San Blas cuts through the Panamanian jungle like a serrated knife. "Keep your fucking hands off the girl!" Locked up in one of the world's worst prisons, Tony has to prove his innocence and attempt an audacious escape. Sign Up. The domestic bliss lasted only a couple of weeks. His mother, Bonnie Gellilti, was "a bit of a criminal," Tony remembers. His father, Arnold, was a strait-laced sales manager but a distant and disapproving dad. 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. I gave each of my kids a Rolex when they were 5 years old. Girls charged $150 or more for sex. This story has been shared 121,048 times. Miami's independent source of and help keep the future of New Times, Use of this website constitutes acceptance of our. 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. The submarine request, which came from Yester on behalf of the cartel, was not as outrageous as it now sounds. The person they were going to pay for the submarine was the officer who let them [into the naval base], says Russell. They tried to squeeze Fainberg to get Seidle. Locked Up Abroad 151M subscribers Miami mobster Tony Galeota is a strip-club supremo. Filmography (by Job) Trailers and Videos. He was 31. So we met with a realtor, got high, and Tony got stupid with money. As far as he was concerned, he owned the military base. But the Doll House and Moulin Rouge remain closed. "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. Become a member to support the independent voice of South Florida 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. But she insists that her husband's imprisonment has brought them closer. We have a lot of laughs about it now," he says. One man stabbed someone over a $10 debt. During the Doll House raid, they found marked bills in the register and several grams of pot on a promoter. "I don't care how strong you are; that's going to affect your marriage," she says. Johns paid $100 to rent a VIP room downstairs. ), The narcotics charge, however, still stands despite little evidence linking Galeota to the drugs. Just not a strip club. Panama's judicial system is outdated and overburdened, she says. The Porky's party nearly came to a sudden end in early 1997. I just called a friend who had a friend and asked if he could get us a sub. Michael Galeota, who starred on the Disney Channel's "The Jersey" died Sunday, according to Variety. Galeota's sheer size and mob connections are the only things keeping him from getting shivved in the dark. Were out there to cause an effect in the drug industry and I believe we made a little dent on it.. "He had that guido effect on me," she says. As the authorities closed in, they picked up Juan and Tarzan, but they couldnt find Tony and neither could the cartel. 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.. But Galeota was convinced the cops were bluffing and refused to cooperate. Inside, the bar is still littered with half-empty bottles of Chivas Regal. But his mind was on another kind of riches. Instead, he says competitors pulled government strings to screw him. The Coast Guard said four suspected smugglers were taken into custody and 32 bales of cocaine were found in the water. We've been here for two years!' "Last week we were supposed to have a hearing, but there was no running water in Panama City. Galeota tried going straight, opening a coffee shop in downtown Panama City. And I'm not asking her to. "My father wasn't in the mob, but his friends were," Tony says. Here, Galeota is just one of 500 prisoners crammed into a filthy cell block designed to hold 200 people. 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. And last year, Yester was finally arrested in Rome on charges unrelated to the submarine while en route to a wedding. 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. That didnt stop Russell from trying to get them on board with doing a film about the submarine deal. Biography. After that, Kristy closed Bongos. 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. They were all together when Tony worked for the Russin mobsters in Porky's club as its manager. Prostitution is legal in Panama," he complains. I know its gonna be a strange question. Tony Galeota Age And Family. "They shot him in the middle of the night," Galeota continues quietly, "and buried his body behind the pavilion.". When he left to open a bona fide brothel in Panama, Galeota thought the country's lax prostitution laws would make him rich. Then she'd charge my friends $50 each," he says. Instead, Galeota admits he's done bad things, such as. independent local journalism in Miami. "Then they'd tell me: 'They are as good as dead.'". But when he opens a new club in Panama City, the competition isn't happy and frames him for drug dealing. Wrongly imprisoned. Kristy caught Tony cheating several times, she says. See Photos.
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