He was 31. But the Doll House and Moulin Rouge remain closed. Between an undercover agent, a tap on Tarzans cellphone and the wiring of Babushka, federal law enforcement agencies had enough information to shut down the sale. The last one locked the door. Of the $10 million, he said, I cannot f- -king believe it how fast I spend it.. Facilitating it. Awards. When Galeota arrived in Miami in the summer of 1991, the city was awash in coke, crack, and drug cash. "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. "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. "But I did it for my child.". On a crowded balcony overlooking La Joya, Galeota describes the past 16 months as a nightmare. In January 1997, after he dropped his daughter off at school, Tarzan was arrested and hit with a 30-count federal indictment. When Galeota arrived, his mobster reputation preceded him. Even then, however, he couldn't sleep. A tattoo of an Italian Mafioso emerges from an extra-large sleeveless T-shirt. Tony Galeota has a wife named Kristy Galeota, with whom he lives. Miami's underworld may still be seedy, but it has outsourced much of its shadiness to nearby Third-World countries such as Panama. We travelled all the time. And I'm not asking her to. "Many times, I worried about him getting killed. Galeota's wife Kristy comments "Porky's was definitely a place you could get killed." "They shot him in the middle of the night," Galeota continues quietly, "and buried his body behind the pavilion.". Moreover, trafficking prostitutes and drugs and involvement in organized crime are some serious charges.". 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.". Galeota is no angelic Andy Dufresne, the main character in Shawshank who serves two decades behind bars for a crime he didn't commit. At the entrance to La Joya, ant hills and wasp nests surround a wooden sign. The submarine request, which came from Yester on behalf of the cartel, was not as outrageous as it now sounds. So we met with a realtor, got high, and Tony got stupid with money. Galeota may not be a good man, but he is brutally honest. "I don't care how strong you are; that's going to affect your marriage," she says. ", Coast Guard Offloads More Than $93 Million In Cocaine, Miami Beach. "I lived it up in Miami," he says. #Torture #PanamGovernment #LaJoyaprisonPanam #PresidentVarela #Panam #Corruption. "They shot him in the middle of the night," Galeota continues quietly, "and buried his body behind the pavilion.". The trio convened in Russia, and snapshots of them aboard the football-field-size sub, posing with the captain, hamming it up with one another, were shown to cartel members to make clear that the submarine sale closed with all parties naked in a bathhouse was for real. 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. Become a member to support the independent voice of South Florida If only there were a place where prostitution was legal, he thought, a city full of beautiful women like Miami, but no rules. View the profiles of people named Anthony Galeota. Tony Galletta. Tony Galeota Tony Galeota. Born on June 3, 1924 at Hartford. And, above all, selling it. In the distance, La Cordillera de San Blas cuts through the Panamanian jungle like a serrated knife. "I was just numb.". But the story of how the documentary got made is nearly as crazy as the caper plot itself. View Tony Galeota's 1940 US census record to find family members, occupation details & more. More at IMDbPro Contact Info: View agent, publicist, legal on IMDbPro. TV-14 | 06.05.2013. "When you go to prison, it's like dying, but you get to see your own funeral," Galeota says. But he was too shell-shocked to take up his attorney's offer for a ride to a nice hotel. 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.. Juan, Tarzan and law enforcement insisted there was no way hed agree to participate in the documentary. Behind him, 12-foot-high fences topped with spools of barbed wire frame a muddy soccer field. "We were doing fantastic, but Tarzan got bored and started living the life," Galeota explains. 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. "Now I'm living in hell.". It is not known when he was born or his current age. Skip Ancestry main menu Main Menu "My father wasn't in the mob, but his friends were," Tony says. Russian immigrant Ludwig Fainberg, a.k.a. This story has been shared 121,048 times. But then the country's corrupt system turned on them. By then, the club's criminal clientele and Fainberg's increasingly lavish lifestyle had raised eyebrows. A judge eventually dropped the human trafficking charge, but Galeota still rotted in his sordid cell alongside insects the size of small dogs. When he heard that his old partner in crime from Porky's had moved to Panama, he flew in to meet with Galeota. But Tony had darker secrets. Behind him, 12-foot-high fences topped with spools of barbed wire frame a muddy soccer field. "Like me, he was a black sheep who could do nothing right.". By now, she knows of his many infidelities, including that he lived and slept with some of the girls at the Doll House. 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. "But I've always paid for everything, either with stitches in my head, concussions, or jail time. ", 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. 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. Miami's underworld may still be seedy, but it has outsourced much of its shadiness to nearby Third-World countries such as Panama. But the hassle had taken its toll on him. On a Sunday night in July of 1991, a 29-year-old electrician named Phillip John Shea came into Quarterbacks shortly after Tony and Kristy left. We asked them some questions and some of their information didnt quite add up, so we conducted a boarding.. It was February 2011, and he was preparing to open the Doll House, his own strip club in Panama. He left, but returned with a gun. He'd already invested in seven apartments in Panama City and rented a storefront on the capital's seediest street, where prostitution was legal. When youre rolling with the criminal underworld, its always weird; its really weird in Russia.. A dozen plainclothes cops poured in with pistols drawn. By the time they returned to Long Island later that night, a pimp was born. Research > Galeota > Tony Galeota. 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. Galeota is not exactly repentant. (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. Marshals deported Ludwig Fainberg from Miami. Nobody was impressed more than Kristy Sharpe, an 18-year-old waitress from Orlando with blond hair, blue eyes, and lightly freckled skin. "It is with tremendous heartfelt sadness to announce the passing of Michael James Gal A tattoo of an Italian Mafioso emerges from an extra-large sleeveless T-shirt. Coast Guard members who seized the cocaine said this is what their jobs are all about. He might have sold them the submarine, taken the money and walked away with the money.. The goods came from sources in the freshly fallen Soviet Union, a place where everything seemed to be up for grabs at ridiculously low prices. ", Instead, he found another, tighter-knit family: the mob. It wasn't until he ordered some Italian food and a cold Guinness that he finally felt like he was free. Instead, he's trapped in a labyrinthine legal system, alone and unable to speak Spanish. This story has been shared 173,716 times. She's forgiven me, for the most part. Controlling it. "Their connections were bigger than ours," he says. See Photos. Business was better, but it still wouldn't make him rich. 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. That didnt stop Russell from trying to get them on board with doing a film about the submarine deal. Tony and Kristy were shocked and out of a job. "We treated the women well.". "Last week we were supposed to have a hearing, but there was no running water in Panama City. He ogled the women standing on corners in their underwear and high heels. 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 "My wife is never going to completely trust me. Anthony Galeota was born October 17, 1968, on Long Island. Between the restaurant and the Doll House, he was making enough to retire in five years. A deep bass line rattled customers' chests as they downed overpriced drinks. Although he knows he could receive the death penalty, the money is too tempting to resist. Galeota saw an opportunity. We've been here for two years!' "There was no transportation, no cops, no nothing," he says. "Now I'm living in hell.". 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. (CBS Miami). On June 19, 2011, Tony and his oldest son, 15-year-old Anthony Jr., had just sat down to eat wings in the Doll House office around 11 p.m. when the gold-painted doors burst open. Tony Galeto. He headed right to his beloved Miami, Florida. He knew that the owners of a local strip club called Moulin Rouge David Fridman and Jake Lita (an Israeli wanted by German police on human-trafficking charges) had a business offer for the duo. Thanks to a successful appeal, Almeida served only 18 months for his part in the sub caper. 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. He was, after all, working with an American playboy in Miami and a fugitive Cuban spy to procure this submarine. "My wife could have left me. For a while, Panama's pay-to-play culture suited Galeota just fine. 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). Log In. A kilo of cocaine in Panama costs much less - about $5,000 per. His mother, Bonnie Gellilti, was "a bit of a criminal," Tony remembers. Everything here has a cost.". But Monday morning, when it came time to walk out of La Joya, there was no vehicle waiting. When he was 16, he knocked up his 15-year-old girlfriend at Hauppauge High School. 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. Tony Galeota Age And Family. Log In. With Fainberg locked up, Porky's was Galeota's plaything. Panamanian police had been casing the Doll House, Moulin Rouge, and another joint, called Havana Club, for weeks. Galeota yelled. October 4, 2012 Bonnie also shoplifted booze to sustain her hard drinking habit. See Photos. Miami's underworld may still be seedy, but it has outsourced much of its shadiness to nearby Third-World countries such as Panama. Nearly 300 feet long with 10 torpedo tubes (empty in this case), it was diesel but could be converted to electric for silent running. Wrongly imprisoned. Galeota is no angelic Andy Dufresne, the main character in Shawshank who serves two decades behind bars for a crime he didn't commit. Galeota is one of several Americans locked up here. His father, Arnold, was a strait-laced sales manager but a distant and disapproving dad. "Whenever there is an American businessman involved in crime here in Panama, it becomes an important case. "Luis pulled out a .38 and shot the guy in the chest. After that, Kristy closed Bongos. I said, Thank you, Cali cartel. He was very serious and said he would look into it. Seidle was never charged with a crime. "Bill was one of the most influential people in Miami," Galeota says. "They murdered a guy in here a couple of days ago," Tony Galeota says. Catherine says she slept with customers because she needed the money to support her family. Meet me in Africa for a cup of coffee tomorrow.. 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. "It was home to a lot of shrewd and nefarious characters.". 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. 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. Miami's independent source of Again, Tony's friends in New York told him where to go. In the meantime, he's spending time with his wife and kids. Three weeks after the Doll House raid, Kristy was working the bar at Bongos when three teenagers walked into the restaurant. "I've done a lot of shady things in the States," he admits. He sold the shop and in 2010 opened Bongos, a restaurant serving wings and beer. According to the Coast Guard: It first took place north of the Gulf of Uraba. On Friday, May 17, Galeota got word that the judge had also dismissed the drug charge because of lack of evidence. There was nothing unusual about it. "When you're in La Joya for two years, you get used to that environment," Galeota says. We both understand that.". "Now I'm living in hell.". Like a concert pianist, Tony Galeota has spent his life honing a single skill since he was a teenager. Its a great success overall. Galeota's sheer size and mob connections are the only things keeping him from getting shivved in the dark. His mother, Bonnie Gellilti, was "a bit of a criminal," Tony remembers. "It is with tremendous heartfelt sadness to announce the passing of Michael James. The $33,000 number is actually the wholesale price in the US for smugglers - or how much a kilo is worth delivered to US soil, for traffickers. I never got a straight answer [about why he was in jail there], says Russell. During the Doll House raid, they found marked bills in the register and several grams of pot on a promoter. But their courtship was cut short. As he contemplates the question, Galeota watches his fellow inmates kick a soccer ball across La Joya's putrid playground. The year before, his father helped him land a job as a wedding DJ. The young mobster needed to lay low, so the Pacciones sent him south to a strip club called the Porthole Pub in Pompano Beach. Galeota was hit with felony drug and prostitution charges. Then once he sent me this crazy email like, Holy s***! He also owned the Russian restaurant Babushka, which was a magnet for snowbirding criminals from his homeland. And I'm not asking her to.". I flew to a little island near St. Petersburg, met with a retired Russian admiral, and he took me to the navy base, says Tarzan. They also discovered the club was registered as a massage parlor, not a brothel. Michael Galeota, who starred on the Disney Channel's "The Jersey" died Sunday, according to Variety. 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. Inside La Joya, he had paid a guard to smuggle in a BlackBerry to talk to his wife, but strangers kept calling with threats to kill his kids unless he paid them. 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. Prostitution in Miami had become too risky, he decided, but overseas sex tourism was soaring. Find your friends on Facebook. "I'm in survival mode now," Galeota says, adding that he agonizes over being imprisoned for what he believes are unjust charges. One can imagine they did plenty of drugs.. "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. Galeota was crammed into a sweltering holding cell with 150 others. The year before, his father helped him land a job as a wedding DJ. But he insists that, for once, he has done nothing wrong. The domestic bliss lasted only a couple of weeks. His Doll House dream began at Porky's. 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. Guards with machine guns man rusty metal towers. Make a one-time donation today for as little as $1. They were very compliant to everything we asked of them, said McElhaney. Rats, roaches, and beetles the size of Chihuahuas crawl over inmates at night. We didn't even have to have sex unless we wanted to," says a Colombian stripper named Catherine. "They shot him in the middle of the night," Galeota continues quietly, "and buried his body behind the pavilion.". I have to tell you, all my enemies are dead, and Im happy, he says in the documentary. It was coke or pimping or messing with the wrong people.. And there was absolutely no bullshit. "If you like to eat chocolate and you live in a chocolate factory, you're going to eat chocolate," he says. 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. "That clean, business-friendly, postcard-Panama bullshit is just a faade," Galeota says. 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. During a visit last month, a New Times reporter witnessed one police official receive a $20 bill in a barely disguised handshake. Guards with machine guns man rusty metal towers. Two agents told him that they'd been tapping his phone for months. 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. 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. He was a character.. 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. 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. He escaped with his life and went on the run, aiming to avoid the cartel, Interpol and US law enforcers. ", 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. And theyre like, F*** yeah, lets do it. He could convince you that the sky was green." Log in or sign up for Facebook to connect with friends, family and people you know. Get the latest updates in news, food, music and culture, and receive special offers direct to your inbox. The nightmare deepened for Galeota. 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. Michael Galeota, who starred on the Disney Channel's "The Jersey" died Sunday, according to Variety. Make a one-time donation today for as little as $1. Like a concert pianist, Tony Galeota has spent his life honing a single skill since he was a teenager. Eventually, he moved two dozen ladies to Panama City. Girls charged $150 or more for sex. When Seidle died in 2008, Porky's political protection followed the 82-year-old to the grave. Anthony Galeota (right) poses with Ludwig "Tarzan" Fainberg inside the Doll House weeks before their arrest. The lessons in crime didn't come fast enough for Galeota to stay out of trouble. "I've done a lot of shady things in the States," he admits. Anthony Jr. was taken to a juvenile detention center that wasn't much better. Instead of celebrating, he walked through the scuzzy neighbourhood until he found a shabby motel. See Photos. "A family type thing, like an ale house with wings and beer," he says. More than anything, Galeota is grateful that his family kept faith in him. The crew boarded the 165-foot Panamanian-flagged coastal freighter Hope II. 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. Docs need stars just like features need stars.
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