Thanks to a successful appeal, Almeida served only 18 months for his part in the sub caper. Sign Up. Tony Galeota - IMDb The young mobster needed to lay low, so the Pacciones sent him south to a strip club called the Porthole Pub in Pompano Beach. He was very serious and said he would look into it. McDonald expects those will be dismissed as well, but not for months. This is a guy that the FBI went after for years but could never get him. And so with like five days prep I jumped on a plane, went to Miami, started courting the cops and the feds and the US attorneys and all the good guys, the law enforcement side of it their participation was instrumental in it, because theyre the ones that have all the evidentiary record and all the surveillance video and the photos and the wiretaps and all that stuff, most of which is the sort of visual skeleton to the film. Galeota's sheer size and mob connections are the only things keeping him from getting shivved in the dark. Here, Galeota is just one of 500 prisoners crammed into a filthy cell block designed to hold 200 people. 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. Miami's underworld may still be seedy, but it has outsourced much of its shadiness to nearby Third-World countries such as Panama. By then, the club's criminal clientele and Fainberg's increasingly lavish lifestyle had raised eyebrows. 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. 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. I got a piece of the action of every blowjob that my friends got," Galeota says. He faced nine years in prison, but because he provided evidence against Almeida, he served just three years before being deported to his adopted homeland of Israel. The 43-year-old is shaped like a mini refrigerator: short and squat, with a shaved head and wide-set emerald eyes. and help keep the future of New Times, Use of this website constitutes acceptance of our. 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. A deep bass line rattled customers' chests as they downed overpriced drinks. With dark hair and pale, wide-set eyes, teenage Tony resembled a stocky Frank Sinatra. Make a one-time donation today for as little as $1. She is cute and curvy with dark hair and a button nose. Prostitution is legal in Panama," he complains. Galeota is one of several Americans locked up here. "Luis pulled out a .38 and shot the guy in the chest. or. Tony Galeota: From Running Porky's, Miami's Most Notorious Strip Joint But Monday morning, when it came time to walk out of La Joya, there was no vehicle waiting. "They murdered a guy in here a couple of days ago," Tony Galeota says. 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.". In the meantime, he's spending time with his wife and kids. The two were married in 1994 at a wedding full of mobsters. Biography. Update information for Tony Galeota . It was 1990, and Galeota transformed the place by wiring in subwoofers and bringing in New York dancers. 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. 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 the couple drove south on I-95, they thought they were leaving the worst behind them. Banged Up Abroad - National Geographic for everyone in everywhere 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. "Now I'm living in hell.". But their courtship was cut short. Join Facebook to connect with Anthony Galeota and others you may know. 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. Police repeatedly raided the club, yet Galeota escaped unscathed every time. "When you're in La Joya for two years, you get used to that environment," Galeota says. Tony Galeota: From Running Porky's, Miami's Most Notorious Strip Joint Miami's independent source of 8:00AM. Moreover, trafficking prostitutes and drugs and involvement in organized crime are some serious charges.". He didn't stay long. Cops had made several controlled buys of drugs. He was a character.. When he left to open a bona fide brothel in Panama, Galeota thought the country's lax prostitution laws would make him rich. The person they were going to pay for the submarine was the officer who let them [into the naval base], says Russell. But instead of classical music, his specialty is sex. 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. 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. Instead of celebrating, he walked through the scuzzy neighbourhood until he found a shabby motel. The heavy-set Italian even signed a release. They were very compliant to everything we asked of them, said McElhaney. The drugs will be turned over to the DEA. When crews were launched to investigate, the suspected smugglers threw several packages into the water. And like the Italian-American crooner, he loved women a little too much. "Many times, I worried about him getting killed. 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 and his "girls" in the Doll House, before the bust. 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. The gig introduced him to a lifelong vice. 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. When he heard that his old partner in crime from Porky's had moved to Panama, he flew in to meet with Galeota. These interdiction's were part of Operation Martillo, an international operation to fight illegal trafficking. "But I've always paid for everything, either with stitches in my head, concussions, or jail time. As he contemplates the question, Galeota watches his fellow inmates kick a soccer ball across La Joya's putrid playground. "My wife could have left me. Through the air plane window, Tony Galeota could see the city's colonial churches glow like polished gold. "Anthony has been in jail for more than 15 months, and a judge hasn't even heard his case yet!" Tarzan and one of his partners, 'Fat Tony' Galeota, had opened a strip club in Panama similar to a previous enterprise in Miami called Porky's - but they landed behind bars in Central America.. 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 he was too shell-shocked to take up his attorney's offer for a ride to a nice hotel. Operation Odessa - From the Heart Productions Inc Tony Goleta. "She would use shoe polish to change our driver's licenses so we could go to clubs and drink when we were 15. But in South Florida, he was once a strip club king. source of local news and culture, Michael E. Miller Explore More. This time, I'm innocent.". While Kristy was still in the States, he lived with five of his Colombian prostitutes. There was nothing unusual about it. His mother, Bonnie Gellilti, was "a bit of a. Sometimes we get a little excited when we find the amount of cocaine we found, said Castro. Michael Galeota, who starred on the Disney Channel's "The Jersey" died Sunday, according to Variety. "That's obstruction of justice.". He is currently being held in Italy. Inside, the bar is still littered with half-empty bottles of Chivas Regal. independent local journalism in Miami. 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. He was talking to Fainberg about a murder he'd witnessed in Porky's parking lot. He was 31. "I want to go legit when I get out, but if the economy is bad, I might go back to the industry," he says. 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.. Join the New Times community and help support Again, the charges were dropped. Banks seized all seven of his apartments. When he discovered he was about to be subpoenaed, he withdrew $2,500 from the bank and boarded a two-week Caribbean cruise. The year before, his father helped him land a job as a wedding DJ. "We treated the women well.". 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 Tony had darker secrets. The message was that the cocaine traffickers would kill Yesters family members. Indeed, Havana Club has already reopened. See Photos. Somewhere between his native Ukraine, Israel, and Russia, he'd shed his trademark long hair and changed his name to Alon Bar. The Coast Guard said four suspected smugglers were taken into custody and 32 bales of cocaine were found in the water. "It's not an easy choice," she says. "Keep your fucking hands off the girl!" "I was always looking for their approval," he says, "but I never got that. "We were like: 'We want to get the fuck out of here. Anthony Galeota was born October 17, 1968, on Long Island. Log in or sign up for Facebook to connect with friends, family and people you know. If I were to make this story up and pitch it as a writer, producers would be like, Thats the worst pitch Ive ever heard. 16:56 GMT 13 Mar 2018 "Thank God I'm out," he tells New Times in his first interview since his release. He offered protection and gave Galeota $200. "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. Santiago de Cali shone in the syrupy South American sunlight filling Colombia's Cauca River Valley. Sixteen months later, the two men have yet to appear in court. Make a one-time donation today for as little as $1. And I'm not asking her to. While another new prisoner was beaten and robbed, Galeota was untouched. Miami playboy, Russian gangster and Cuban spy tried to buy submarine Its a lot of f- -king paper. Tony Galeota lived in 1954, at address, Massachusetts. His name was Tony Galeota, he said, and he had run Porky's for 18 years before being locked up in Panama's worst prison for a crime he didn't commit. 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. Over the years, Galeota saw nearly a dozen shootings at Porky's, some of them fatal. 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. Here, Galeota is just one of 500 prisoners crammed into a filthy cell block designed to hold 200 people. 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. Its Colombian dancers were in Panama on six-month tourist visas, weren't licensed as prostitutes, and weren't getting required weekly health checkups. "It is with tremendous heartfelt sadness to announce the passing of Michael James Gal 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. The bartender hid in the bathroom and dialed 911. And he hopes to open a place in Fort Lauderdale when he's back. "The first month, we had $15,000 in gross sales. When one inmate killed another, the dead man's gang on the outside murdered the inmate's entire family, Galeota says. Like a concert pianist, Tony Galeota has spent his life honing a single skill since he was a teenager. ", Instead, he found another, tighter-knit family: the mob. But it was abundantly clear that the key figure in the deal was Yester and his story would be particularly illuminating though the CIA, DEA and FBI had been after him, without success, for more than two decades. ", Coast Guard Offloads More Than $93 Million In Cocaine, Miami Beach. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. And he hopes to open a place in Fort Lauderdale when he's back, Just not a strip club. This story has been shared 121,048 times. Inside the prison, the sign is a running joke. "But I've always paid for everything, either with stitches in my head, concussions, or jail time. They had girls in every city. Has a stint in Panamanian prison reformed Miami's most notorious strip club manager? His mother, Bonnie Gellilti, was "a bit of a criminal," Tony remembers. So we met with a realtor, got high, and Tony got stupid with money. View the profiles of people named Anthony Galeota. 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. Instead, they eat rice for lunch and dinner, drink dirty river water, and use a hole in the ground for a toilet. His mother, Bonnie Gellilti, was "a bit of a criminal," Tony remembers. The charismatic teenager sold the stolen suits or electronics at strip clubs or used-car lots. But when the house of cards tumbles, John . 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. Michael Galeota, who starred on the Disney Channel's "The Jersey" died Sunday, according to Variety. He was 31. 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. In January 1997, after he dropped his daughter off at school, Tarzan was arrested and hit with a 30-count federal indictment. Galeota tried going straight, opening a coffee shop in downtown Panama City. He raises his eyebrows and looks upwards to the left to emphasize just how flabbergasted he was with Mishas counter question. "It is with tremendous heartfelt sadness to announce the passing of Michael James. It was February 2011, and he was preparing to open the Doll House, his own strip club in Panama. 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. We did outsmart the FBI, we did outsmart the DEA, we even did outsmart the court, Tarzan says in the film. The Coast Guard said the eight-member crew cooperated and was taken into custody. But he was too shell-shocked to take up his attorney's offer for a ride to a nice hotel. The domestic bliss lasted only a couple of weeks. People named Tony Galeta. Between the restaurant and the Doll House, he was making enough to retire in five years. "He never forced us to do anything. His father, Arnold, was a strait-laced sales manager but a distant and disapproving dad. Seidle was never charged with a crime. We have a lot of laughs about it now," he says. His attorney has warned him that prosecutors will likely appeal, so he plans to stay in Panama until his case is resolved. His father, Arnold, was a strait-laced sales manager but a distant and disapproving dad. But Galeota was convinced the cops were bluffing and refused to cooperate. . By the time he was 18, he had been arrested seven times for armed robbery and assault, he says. A friend suggested Panama. Its about 2,800 kilos, about a ton and a half of contraband. "It was puppy love," he says. He was 31. It continued at another local strip club, called Quarterbacks Playmates Lounge. "Maybe we didn't have the permits we were supposed to have, but we're foreigners who didn't understand the rules.". At the entrance to La Joya, ant hills and wasp nests surround a wooden sign. I have to tell you, all my enemies are dead, and Im happy, he says in the documentary. Banged Up Abroad - Wikipedia 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. But Fainberg wasn't in town to catch up. He called his cartel contacts and arranged to meet them in the pickup area of the Madrid train station. Get the latest updates in news, food, music and culture, and receive special offers direct to your inbox. "This case has had a big impact here," says Jos Otero, a reporter for Panamanian newspaper La Prensa. ), 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. Rats, roaches, and beetles the size of Chihuahuas crawl over inmates at night. But he insists that, for once, he has done nothing wrong. 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. The club was very successful. Tony Galeota Age And Family. He ogled the women standing on corners in their underwear and high heels. "I used to have to patch Tony up all the time," Kristy says. We asked them some questions and some of their information didnt quite add up, so we conducted a boarding.. In the second interdiction, a Customs plane spotted another suspicious boat off the coast of Panama on August 28th. Anthony Galeota was born October 17, 1968, on Long Island. Then an old friend showed up. Moreover, trafficking prostitutes and drugs and involvement in organized crime are some serious charges.". 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. Galeota is no angelic Andy Dufresne, the main character in Shawshank who serves two decades behind bars for a crime he didn't commit. "My family didn't care; they took it," Galeota says of the stolen goods. I told Juan, I said, Hey. He sold the shop and in 2010 opened Bongos, a restaurant serving wings and beer. While on routine patrol, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection plane spotted a suspicious speed boat. During a visit last month, a New Times reporter witnessed one police official receive a $20 bill in a barely disguised handshake. Follow this journalist on Twitter @MikeMillerMiami. 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. He was a big, big fish.". Become a member to support the independent voice of South Florida This time, the feds took over the strip club before selling it to new owners, with one requirement: Neither Galeota nor anyone else from the old club could ever work there again. Tony and Kristy were shocked and out of a job. In January 2017, Almeida got federally charged by the Drug Enforcement Administration with conspiracy to possess narcotics with intent to distribute. , updated The year before, his father helped him land a job as a wedding DJ. "You see who wants to fuck your wife, who wants to rob you, and who your real friends are.". We were approximately 24-hours on board before we got to a hidden compartment, said Castro.There was a hidden compartment and once we opened it we found all the contraband.. "Whenever there is an American businessman involved in crime here in Panama, it becomes an important case. The value then triples to $100,000 per kilo at the street level when it's busted down for individual use. "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. local news and culture, Michael E. Miller "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. A tattoo of an Italian Mafioso emerges from an extra-large sleeveless T-shirt. In the distance, La Cordillera de San Blas cuts through the Panamanian jungle like a serrated knife. Log In. Finally, on May 23, the gate on Galeota's cramped cell swung open, and he was free to go. Catherine says she slept with customers because she needed the money to support her family. 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. This time, I'm innocent.". When his dad lost his job, Tony paid the bills. But it bored him. One scammer stole from another scammer; of course I accept it, he says. 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. Anthony Galeota was born October 17, 1968, on Long Island. 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. "This case has had a big impact here," says Jos Otero, a reporter for Panamanian newspaper La Prensa. "The worst part of being in here is being in here for nothing. Anthony Galeota Profiles | Facebook "They knew some Russian guy named Tarzan who had just opened up a club in Miami called Porky's. But the story of how the documentary got made is nearly as crazy as the caper plot itself. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. She's forgiven me, for the most part. 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. He ogled the women standing on corners in their underwear and high heels. "There was no transportation, no cops, no nothing," he says. But Monday morning, when it came time to walk out of La Joya, there was no vehicle waiting. ", McDonald has succeeded, however, in chipping away at the case, persuading a judge three weeks ago to drop the trafficking charge on a technicality.