The dead and dying are piled into wheelbarrows and left by the front gate until guards arrive in the morning. Ludwig Fainberg a Russian-speaking Ukrainian nicknamed "Tarzan" for his flowing locks had opened it a few months earlier but ran it like a private club for Eastern Europeans. "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. The year before, his father helped him land a job as a wedding DJ. Instead, he's trapped in a labyrinthine legal system, alone and unable to speak Spanish. Coast Guard members who seized the cocaine said this is what their jobs are all about. Galeota is one of several Americans locked up here. "It was a very violent atmosphere," he says. And he hopes to open a place in Fort Lauderdale when he's back, Just not a strip club. Tony Galeota. "Bill was one of the most influential people in Miami," Galeota says. As far as he was concerned, he owned the military base. Russian immigrant Ludwig Fainberg, a.k.a. "I was 16 years old and amazed," he says. With Fainberg locked up, Porky's was Galeota's plaything. As he sweated in jail, Galeota's Panamanian empire crumbled. 8:00AM. But he insists that, for once, he has done nothing wrong. Now the locals want to get rid of guys like Galeota too, as his case has drawn national attention to corruption and human rights abuses. 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 "Whenever there is an American businessman involved in crime here in Panama, it becomes an important case. Bonnie also shoplifted booze to sustain her hard drinking habit. Miami's independent source of Let me check.. While out of sight, he phoned his guy and lied about being in a particular taxi cab. He paid for her to secretly get an abortion. 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 a caper, for sure., He says: Tarzan was the lynchpin to it, because it was his story. Instead, they eat rice for lunch and dinner, drink dirty river water, and use a hole in the ground for a toilet. When Kristy and their three sons finally arrived in June, the business became a family affair: His wife took over at Bongos, while Galeota concentrated on turning the club into a cash machine. Tony Galeota has a wife named Kristy Galeota, with whom he lives. But the Doll House and Moulin Rouge remain closed. Episode 5: Spain /Sold My Soul He ogled the women standing on corners in their underwear and high heels. Like a real-life godfather, Galeota weathered it all. Get the latest updates in news, food, music and culture, and receive special offers direct to your inbox. When Seidle died in 2008, Porky's political protection followed the 82-year-old to the grave. "I thought I would kick up my heels together like 'Oh my God, I'm finally out,'" he says. 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. "I lived it up in Miami," he says. And I'm not asking her to.". 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. "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. 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. 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. "I just watched Luis blow a guy away," Galeota heard himself say on tape. More detailed reports on the crimes weren't available. 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. When he left to open a bona fide brothel in Panama, Galeota thought the country's lax prostitution laws would make him rich. Tony Galeto. Skip Ancestry main menu Main Menu A judge eventually dropped the human trafficking charge, but Galeota still rotted in his sordid cell alongside insects the size of small dogs. Panama became Galeota's personal paradise. He was 31. Police again surrounded Porky's in the early hours of May 9, 2009. I'm kind of stuck with it. As the couple drove south on I-95, they thought they were leaving the worst behind them. When he was 16, he knocked up his 15-year-old girlfriend at Hauppauge High School. 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. "This case has had a big impact here," says Jos Otero, a reporter for Panamanian newspaper La Prensa. Nobody was impressed more than Kristy Sharpe, an 18-year-old waitress from Orlando with blond hair, blue eyes, and lightly freckled skin. Luckier still, a powerful Colombian inmate named Mauricio Ramrez recognized Galeota from his restaurant. Galeota's enemies say that a life of sin has finally caught up with the flesh-peddler. Inmates are fed bread and cheese for breakfast and rice (sometimes beans) for lunch and dinner. At the entrance to La Joya, ant hills and wasp nests surround a wooden sign. Juan felt like he had no choice, says Russell. I never got a straight answer [about why he was in jail there], says Russell. Panamanian police had been casing the Doll House, Moulin Rouge, and another joint, called Havana Club, for weeks. His mother, Bonnie Gellilti, was "a bit of a criminal," Tony remembers. Become a member to support the independent voice of South Florida Tarzan, got his first job in America as an enforcer for the Gambino crime family. 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. 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. "These guys were into just about everything," Assistant U.S. Attorney Diana Fernandez said at the time. But Tony had darker secrets. But Porky's was just a Hialeah dive bar on the corner of SE 14th Street and Ninth Avenue, surrounded by cheap motels and buzzed by flights taking off from Miami International Airport. Michael Galeota, who starred on the Disney Channel's "The Jersey" died Sunday, according to Variety. 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. By the time they returned to Long Island later that night, a pimp was born. Explore More. 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 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. Galeota is one of several Americans locked up here. Dalia Dippolito May Have Tried to Kill Him, But Michael Dippolito Is No Saint, Florida Man Wrestles Shark For Forty Five Minutes, Florida to Execute Death Row Prisoner Donald Dillbeck in February, "We Are Everywhere": Ominous Messages on Anti-Abortion Counseling Centers Prompt Federal Charges, So You're Saying There's (Still) a Chance: Dolphins Playoff Chances Dwindle After 26-20 Loss, Trashed American Flag Sparks Capitol Hill Kerfuffle, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Get started U.S. Yearbooks Name Index, 1890-1979. And she launched drunken tirades at Tony after baseball games, no matter how well the all-star shortstop performed. "The first month, we had $15,000 in gross sales. The heavy-set Italian even signed a release. Its a great success overall. When his dad lost his job, Tony paid the bills. Instead of celebrating, he walked through the scuzzy neighborhood until he found a shabby motel. Guards with machine guns man rusty metal towers. But Galeota was convinced the cops were bluffing and refused to cooperate. "My father wasn't in the mob, but his friends were," Tony says. Director Robin Dashwood Stars Alex Andreas Ricardo Burgos Tony Galeota 4:00AM. Finally, on May 23, the gate on Galeota's cramped cell swung open, and he was free to go. 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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. Just not a strip club. He was a big, big fish.". Meet me in Africa for a cup of coffee tomorrow.. Over the years, Galeota saw nearly a dozen shootings at Porky's, some of them fatal. "I wouldn't leave a dog in that prison, let alone my husband.". He was very serious and said he would look into it. Anywhere other than La Joya, this news would be shocking. On Friday, May 17, Galeota got word that the judge had also dismissed the drug charge because of lack of evidence. Galeota is not exactly repentant. But in South Florida, he was once a strip club king. But Galeota's problems aren't completely behind him. In the distance, La Cordillera de San Blas cuts through the Panamanian jungle like a serrated knife. His mother, Bonnie Gellilti, was "a bit of a. SO I started with the cops and I had been kind of circling the others without knowing if it was really possible or not. Then they pushed play on a cassette deck. 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. During the Doll House raid, they found marked bills in the register and several grams of pot on a promoter. Inside, the bar is still littered with half-empty bottles of Chivas Regal. Join the New Times community and help support independent 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. Business was better, but it still wouldn't make him rich. Galeota jumped at the deal. 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. Tony and Kristy were shocked and out of a job. Make a one-time donation today for as little as $1. The FBI swooped in January 21, surrounding the club and arresting Fainberg. When one inmate killed another, the dead man's gang on the outside murdered the inmate's entire family, Galeota says. The crew boarded the 165-foot Panamanian-flagged coastal freighter Hope II. "I'm in survival mode now," Galeota says, adding that he agonizes over being imprisoned for what he believes are unjust charges. local Journalism in South Florida. Photo courtesy of Josh Weiss Surrounded by Colombian strippers, Galeota gives a toast during a party at the Doll House. 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. Rising swiftly through the ranks, John buries his conscience to become a notorious Mafia hitman. A dozen plainclothes cops poured in with pistols drawn. 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. "I was just numb.". It wasn't until he ordered some Italian food and a cold Guinness that he finally felt like he was free. "Anthony has been in jail for more than 15 months, and a judge hasn't even heard his case yet!" Galeota is no angelic Andy Dufresne, the main character in Shawshank who serves two decades behind bars for a crime he didn't commit. Theres this crazy Russian gangster who sold a submarine to the Cali drug cartel; his name is Tarzan and hes locked in a Panamanian prison and he had a Blackberry And he said, Do you want his number?, And I said, Hell, yes! ", http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2012-10-04/news/tony-galeota-from-running-porky-s-miami-s-most-notorious-strip-joint-to-rotting-in-a-panamanian-jail/full/. Were out there to cause an effect in the drug industry and I believe we made a little dent on it.. 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.. Somewhere between his native Ukraine, Israel, and Russia, he'd shed his trademark long hair and changed his name to Alon Bar. Like a concert pianist, Tony Galeota has spent his life honing a single skill since he was a teenager. It had been ten years since U.S. Create a free family tree for yourself or for Tony Galeota and we'll search for valuable new information for you. But instead of classical music, his specialty is sex. We have a lot of laughs about it now," he says. 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Anthony Galeota was born October 17, 1968, on Long Island. The charismatic teenager sold the stolen suits or electronics at strip clubs or used-car lots. With dark hair and pale, wide-set eyes, teenage Tony resembled a stocky Frank Sinatra. Galeota yelled. If Galeota is freed, it will be a major blow for Panama's prostitution crackdown. He paid for her to secretly get an abortion. In the distance, La Cordillera de San Blas cuts through the Panamanian jungle like a serrated knife. Galeota's enemies say that a life of sin has finally caught up with the flesh-peddler. Galeota examines a bruise from a prison fight in La Joya. He paid for her to secretly get an abortion. He sold the shop and in 2010 opened Bongos, a restaurant serving wings and beer. 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. And, above all, selling it. 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.. Next time, I will steal it back from him., Tarzan (left) at the site of the submarine. June 4, 2013 "It's not an easy choice," she says. His mother, Bonnie Gellilti, was "a bit of a criminal," Tony remembers. Log In. In January 1997, after he dropped his daughter off at school, Tarzan was arrested and hit with a 30-count federal indictment. So the translator said she couldn't take a shower, didn't show up, and the case was delayed. Indeed, Tony would turn Porky's into a moneymaking machine. "It is with tremendous heartfelt sadness to announce the passing of Michael James. While on routine patrol, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection plane spotted a suspicious speed boat. It is not known when he was born or his current age. They were concerned that Tarzan and his arriviste colleagues in crime would merge with Cuban mobsters who already used brutal, bloody force to rule Miamis underworld and create a sort of supergroup of criminality. 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. 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. More than anything, Galeota is grateful that his family kept faith in him. 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. See Photos. He met with mobsters in Cali mansions full of women, and he knocked on random doors in search of dancers. Then once he sent me this crazy email like, Holy s***! According to the Coast Guard: It first took place north of the Gulf of Uraba. But it bored him. We did outsmart the FBI, we did outsmart the DEA, we even did outsmart the court, Tarzan says in the film. He ogled the women standing on corners in their underwear and high heels. He headed right to his beloved Miami, Florida. And there was absolutely no bullshit. He raises his eyebrows and looks upwards to the left to emphasize just how flabbergasted he was with Mishas counter question. "Their connections were bigger than ours," he says. The offload is a result of two successful drug interdictions in the Caribbean since August 23. "There were beautiful girls, just walking the streets, giving blowjobs for $10 or $15.". But Galeota's problems aren't completely behind him. ", 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. 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. And, above all, selling it. ", 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. Bonnie also shoplifted booze to sustain her hard drinking habit. 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. Sign Up. "There was probably a lot more fun going on at Porky's than we even knew of," says one Hialeah police officer who asked not to be identified. But the story of how the documentary got made is nearly as crazy as the caper plot itself. "They murdered a guy in here a couple of days ago," Tony Galeota says. "They shot him in the middle of the night," Galeota continues quietly, "and buried his body behind the pavilion.". 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. He ogled the women standing on corners in their underwear and high heels. 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. 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. "She hasn't worked for 15 years. Kristy caught Tony cheating several times, she says. "That's the goal," is all he'll offer. 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He was the one whod been speaking directly to the cartel; he was the only one who knew the real amount of money Cali were willing to pay; and he was the one who took the risk and disappeared with millions of the cartels drug money. 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. "It was so slow I couldn't take it," he says. "My father wasn't in the mob, but his friends were," Tony says. Sixteen months later, the two men have yet to appear in court. "When you're in La Joya for two years, you get used to that environment," Galeota says. Eventually, however, he made his way to Tarzan. 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. People named Tony Goleta. See Photos. In this real life Goodfellas tale, New York teen John Alite gets a job at his local Deli, a hangout for 'wise guys'. 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. His school friends didn't believe him, so a few days later he sneaked out, stole his mom's minivan, and drove around the neighborhood loading up with other teens. A tattoo of an Italian Mafioso emerges from an extra-large sleeveless T-shirt. Moreover, trafficking prostitutes and drugs and involvement in organized crime are some serious charges.". 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. And last year, Yester was finally arrested in Rome on charges unrelated to the submarine while en route to a wedding. 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. or. "I used to have to patch Tony up all the time," Kristy says. Behind him, 12-foot-high fences topped with spools of barbed wire frame a muddy soccer field. 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 escaped with his life and went on the run, aiming to avoid the cartel, Interpol and US law enforcers. Advertisement. But Tony had darker secrets. The 43-year-old is shaped like a mini refrigerator: short and squat, with a shaved head and wide-set emerald eyes. Galeota was crammed into a sweltering holding cell with 150 others. "My family didn't care; they took it," Galeota says of the stolen goods. Even then, however, he couldn't sleep. Prostitution is legal in Panama," he complains. It was a Foxtrot-class submarine, or Project 641 as the Soviets called it. But he was too shell-shocked to take up his attorney's offer for a ride to a nice hotel. 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. Filthy and crowded cell block of La Joya Prison, Panama. Making the documentary, he says: I found the story so compelling and so riveting that I was just relentlessly magnetized to it. When he discovered he was about to be subpoenaed, he withdrew $2,500 from the bank and boarded a two-week Caribbean cruise. 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. "Now I'm living in hell.". "I don't care how strong you are; that's going to affect your marriage," she says. Galeota is no angelic Andy Dufresne, the main character in Shawshank who serves two decades behind bars for a crime he didn't commit. 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. Panama's judicial system is outdated and overburdened, she says. When he left to open a bona fide brothel in Panama, Galeota thought the country's lax prostitution laws would make him rich.