source of local news and culture, Michael E. Miller Its impossible but only because its true. 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. It is not known when he was born or his current age. His nightmare began in June , when police raided his Panama City strip club and arrested him and his Ukrainian partner for trafficking women and selling drugs. 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. 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. "That's the problem.". Galeota jumped at the deal. He turned himself in a few days later, but the lounge's owner decided to close the cursed club. Join Facebook to connect with Anthony Galeota and others you may know. Moreover, trafficking prostitutes and drugs and involvement in organized crime are some serious charges.". Galeota may not be a good man, but he is brutally honest. "She would use shoe polish to change our driver's licenses so we could go to clubs and drink when we were 15. "Now I'm living in hell.". Like a real-life godfather, Galeota weathered it all. "Their connections were bigger than ours," he says. And he hopes to open a place in Fort Lauderdale when he's back. As Shea tried to pull the panties off one of the dancers, he heard police sirens in the distance and bolted. Tony Galeota - Historical records and family trees - MyHeritage "It was a very violent atmosphere," he says. We have a lot of laughs about it now," he says. Tony Galeota in the 1940 Census | Ancestry The guards leave at 5pm, and they just lock the gates, and its inmate rule at night, he says, explaining that he bribed a guard to get him in and out of the jail. Half an hour later, Galeota was guarding the door when a car rolled up with the window down. He was 31. Tony Galeota, Infamous Miami Strip Club Manager - Miami New Times 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. "The investigation was so poorly handled and rushed," says Otero, the journalist. Kristy caught Tony cheating several times, she says. Even then, however, he couldn't sleep. And she launched drunken tirades at Tony after baseball games, no matter how well the all-star shortstop performed. Michael Galeota, who starred on the Disney Channel's "The Jersey" died Sunday, according to Variety. In the second interdiction, a Customs plane spotted another suspicious boat off the coast of Panama on August 28th. Michael Galeota Obituary (1984 - 2016) - Legacy Episode 5: Spain /Sold My Soul 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. "It was puppy love," he says. And she launched drunken tirades at Tony after baseball games, no matter how well the all-star shortstop performed. But all the cops found were five grams of weed, a bottle of Viagra, and some mysterious yellow pills. While out of sight, he phoned his guy and lied about being in a particular taxi cab. Bonnie also shoplifted booze to sustain her hard drinking habit. The eight crew members aboard the Hope II and the vessel were taken into custody and will be turned over to U.S. officials for further investigation. or. Panamanian newspapers put "Operation Fiesta" on the front page as prosecutors alleged Galeota was part of an international crime ring. Its our mission down there besides search and rescue. He and Fainberg were on their way to riches thanks to powerful friends and legalized prostitution. Tarzan managed to get light punishment for his 1997 conviction; he rolled over on Almeida and spent 30 months behind bars before being deported to Israel, where his family had immigrated, in 1999. He sold the shop and in 2010 opened Bongos, a restaurant serving wings and beer. 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. So I was literally stepping over dead bodies of the people who had been shanked and stuff over the course of the night.. Tony Galeota. See Photos. Tony Galeto. Then an old friend showed up. He also owned the Russian restaurant Babushka, which was a magnet for snowbirding criminals from his homeland. 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. Meet me in Africa for a cup of coffee tomorrow.. Like a concert pianist, Tony Galeota has spent his life honing a single skill since he was a teenager. "You see who wants to fuck your wife, who wants to rob you, and who your real friends are.". They put a hit out on him when he disappeared with the money, while Juan and Tarzan took the legal fall in Miami. He called me in two days and he asked me, do we want the submarine with missiles or without missiles? says Tarzan. "I wouldn't leave a dog in that prison, let alone my husband.". Then they pushed play on a cassette deck. He paid for her to secretly get an abortion. "My father wasn't in the mob, but his friends were," Tony says. His mother, Bonnie Gellilti, was "a bit of a. "It was a nightmare in there.". When Galeota arrived in Miami in the summer of 1991, the city was awash in coke, crack, and drug cash. See Photos. "I was just numb.". "There were beautiful girls, just walking the streets, giving blowjobs for $10 or $15.". 17:57 GMT 13 Mar 2018. One man stabbed someone over a $10 debt. More than anything, Galeota is grateful that his family kept faith in him. A kilo of cocaine in Panama costs much less - about $5,000 per. But Monday morning, when it came time to walk out of La Joya, there was no vehicle waiting. Instead, he's trapped in a labyrinthine legal system, alone and unable to speak Spanish. The nightmare deepened for Galeota. 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. Galeota is one of several Americans locked up here. The club was very successful. 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. From Porky's to Panama Prison, Tony Galeota Reveals Miami's Mob-Run Advertisement. "Miami is a place where I would love to live," he pronounced, "and where I would love to die." 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. Instead of celebrating, he walked through the scuzzy neighborhood until he found a shabby motel. Facilitating it. Nearly 300 feet long with 10 torpedo tubes (empty in this case), it was diesel but could be converted to electric for silent running. Juan felt like he had no choice, says Russell. We did outsmart the FBI, we did outsmart the DEA, we even did outsmart the court, Tarzan says in the film. Michael Galeota's Obituary (1984 - 2016) Estes Park Trail-Gazette "This case has had a big impact here," says Jos Otero, a reporter for Panamanian newspaper La Prensa. Next time, I will steal it back from him., Tarzan (left) at the site of the submarine. And like the Italian-American crooner, he loved women a little too much. In this real life Goodfellas tale, New York teen John Alite gets a job at his local Deli, a hangout for 'wise guys'. 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. Everybody wanted to make money. They were all together when Tony worked for the Russin mobsters in Porky's club as its manager. "Whenever there is an American businessman involved in crime here in Panama, it becomes an important case. 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. 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. . "These guys were into just about everything," Assistant U.S. Attorney Diana Fernandez said at the time. Photo courtesy of Josh Weiss - Giant insects infest the prison. See Photos. When Bill Seidle died, Galeota knew the club's days were numbered. Anthony Galeota was born October 17, 1968, on Long Island. Just not a strip club. "Whenever there is an American businessman involved in crime here in Panama, it becomes an important case. Prosecutors say police never filed the necessary paperwork. "Last week we were supposed to have a hearing, but there was no running water in Panama City. 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. And he hopes to open a place in Fort Lauderdale when he's back, Just not a strip club. 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. The person they were going to pay for the submarine was the officer who let them [into the naval base], says Russell. He raises his eyebrows and looks upwards to the left to emphasize just how flabbergasted he was with Mishas counter question. Police repeatedly raided the club, yet Galeota escaped unscathed every time. Anthony Galeota Profiles | Facebook "Another night at Porky's, another shooting," he remembers now from his prison cell in Panama. Instead of celebrating, he walked through the scuzzy neighbourhood until he found a shabby motel. Behind him, 12-foot-high fences topped with spools of barbed wire frame a muddy soccer field. and help keep the future of New Times, Use of this website constitutes acceptance of our. With little oversight, military leaders acted as if they were independent of the government. I know its gonna be a strange question. But their courtship was cut short. On a crowded balcony overlooking La Joya, Galeota describes the past 16 months as a nightmare. It was coke or pimping or messing with the wrong people.. Toni Galeota Profiles | Facebook The 43-year-old is shaped like a mini refrigerator: short and squat, with a shaved head and wide-set emerald eyes. But he was too shell-shocked to take up his attorney's offer for a ride to a nice hotel. Galeota also found himself in the back of an unmarked FBI car. Now the stranger-than-fiction story is brought to life in new documentary Operation Odessa, a film thats closer to a roller-coaster ride than anything else and premieres on Showtime March 31. His father, Arnold, was a strait-laced sales manager but a distant and disapproving dad. "This case has had a big impact here," says Jos Otero, a reporter for Panamanian newspaper La Prensa. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. "Luis pulled out a .38 and shot the guy in the chest. 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. Galeota's enemies say that a life of sin has finally caught up with the flesh-peddler. 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. We didn't even have to have sex unless we wanted to," says a Colombian stripper named Catherine. The heavy-set Italian even signed a release. Then once he sent me this crazy email like, Holy s***! 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. 4:00AM. "Now I'm living in hell.". "My family didn't care; they took it," Galeota says of the stolen goods. 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. They also discovered the club was registered as a massage parlor, not a brothel. McDonald expects those will be dismissed as well, but not for months. Anthony Jr. was taken to a juvenile detention center that wasn't much better. A tattoo of an Italian Mafioso emerges from an extra-large sleeveless T-shirt. But Galeota's plan would soon go catastrophically wrong. 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. Tony was a tough, muscular little shit back then. That didnt stop Russell from trying to get them on board with doing a film about the submarine deal. 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. "We just meshed," she says. And I'm not asking her to.". "When you're in La Joya for two years, you get used to that environment," Galeota says. Finally, on May 23, the gate on Galeota's cramped cell swung open, and he was free to go. He needed some help," he recalls. More detailed reports on the crimes weren't available. Get started U.S. Yearbooks Name Index, 1890-1979. Galeota's wife Kristy comments "Porky's was definitely a place you could get killed." 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. October 4, 2012 "But I've always paid for everything, either with stitches in my head, concussions, or jail time. 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. Prisoners eat stale bread and a slice of cheese for breakfast; rice and sometimes beans is their lunch and dinner. I hoped to walk away from the deal with $10 million.. He'd already invested in seven apartments in Panama City and rented a storefront on the capital's seediest street, where prostitution was legal. Anthony Galeota (right) poses with Ludwig "Tarzan" Fainberg inside the Doll House weeks before their arrest. Business was better, but it still wouldn't make him rich. "I couldn't take all the people who wanted to come.". 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.". Instead, he's trapped in a labyrinthine legal system, alone and unable to speak Spanish. In the meantime, he's spending time with his wife and kids. It continued at another local strip club, called Quarterbacks Playmates Lounge. When Galeota arrived, his mobster reputation preceded him. While Kristy was still in the States, he lived with five of his Colombian prostitutes. Then she'd charge my friends $50 each," he says. With Fainberg locked up, Porky's was Galeota's plaything. Prostitution was so common at Porky's that the club had fixed places and prices, Galeota says. Miami's underworld may still be seedy, but it has outsourced much of its shadiness to nearby Third-World countries such as Panama. He was hilarious and charming and garrulous, and it was as if hed stepped right out of a Scorsese movie, Russell says, adding: You know whats the funny thing people dont know about docs? CAKEGATE 2023: Bad Bunny's Restaurant Accused of Gobbling Birthday Girl's Cake, Neighborhood Nazi Jon Minadeo Peddles Hate by the Minute, Sen. Rubio's Permanent Daylight Savings Bill Sees Light of Day Once More, NFL Legend Ray Lewis Joins World Jai-Alai League Board of Directors, Affordable New "Micro-Units" Slated for Little River, Edgewater. He paid for her to secretly get an abortion. He was a character.. The year before, his father helped him land a job as a wedding DJ. Galeota was hit with felony drug and prostitution charges. Everything here has a cost.". "Maybe we didn't have the permits we were supposed to have, but we're foreigners who didn't understand the rules.". When Galeota stood up, he checked his T-shirt for bullet holes, but found none. By the mid-'90s, Galeota had turned Porky's into a one-stop shop for strippers, sex, and serious drugs. Bonnie also shoplifted booze to sustain her hard drinking habit. He was 31. As for his career, his only oath is that he won't let his sons follow his example. Tony and Kristy were shocked and out of a job. Michael Galeota, who starred on the Disney Channel's "The Jersey" died Sunday, according to Variety. As the couple drove south on I-95, they thought they were leaving the worst behind them. Let me check.. A tattoo of an Italian Mafioso emerges from an extra-large sleeveless T-shirt. Make a one-time donation today for as little as $1. But the deal never happened. "They knew some Russian guy named Tarzan who had just opened up a club in Miami called Porky's. And twice they had given up. The Doll House couldn't expand fast enough to meet the influx of sex tourists. His Doll House dream began at Porky's. 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. "Running a club in that neighborhood, win or lose, you've got to fight.". Anthony Galeota was born October 17, 1968, on Long Island. Almeida was a specialist in obtaining black-market goods for status-crazed drug dealers. He created a souped-up cigarette boat that went for $2 million and was presumably used to transport cocaine. Making the documentary, he says: I found the story so compelling and so riveting that I was just relentlessly magnetized to it. The message was that the cocaine traffickers would kill Yesters family members. He was soon promoted from DJing weddings to robbing delivery trucks for the Paccione clan (which federal court records tie to the infamous Gambino crime family). Although he knows he could receive the death penalty, the money is too tempting to resist. (CBS Miami). Even then, however, he couldn't sleep. All he needed now were the prostitutes. He met with mobsters in Cali mansions full of women, and he knocked on random doors in search of dancers. 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. "This case has had a big impact here," says Jos Otero, a reporter for Panamanian newspaper La Prensa. Galeota already lived according to a gangster's code. 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. When he was 16, he knocked up his 15-year-old girlfriend at Hauppauge High School. Finally, on May 23, the gate on Galeota's cramped cell swung open, and he was free to go. In the distance, La Cordillera de San Blas cuts through the Panamanian jungle like a serrated knife. But not until she discovered he'd been dating a former Porky's stripper for more than two years did she threaten to divorce him in 2009. But he insists that, for once, he has done nothing wrong. Were out there to cause an effect in the drug industry and I believe we made a little dent on it.. He was recently sentenced to serve around six years in federal prison. Sheila Flynn For Dailymail.com, Smashing the Sinaloa cartel: Major coup for DEA as agents seize $6MILLION cash, hundreds of pounds of narcotics and indict 75 across America for 'laundering drug money for El Chapo's gang', Is this proof that British aristocrat did NOT smuggle drugs into Africa? MIAMI BEACH (CBSMiami) The Coast Guard offloaded about $93 million of cocaine Thursday afternoon on Miami Beach. Seidle was never charged with a crime. "It was puppy love," he says. (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. Make a one-time donation today for as little as $1. Use tab to navigate through the menu items. Garrulous and bearish, the dentist-turned-hood (practicing the former in the Soviet Union and training for the latter in Brighton Beach) routinely carried two pistols and operated out of his Hialeah, Fla., strip club, Porkys: famous for a small motorized car that pulled up between the spread legs of dancers as they performed. 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. But Galeota's problems aren't completely behind him. In hand-painted white lettering, it reads, "Dear visitors. And, above all, selling it. "This country is corrupt. Its a lot of f- -king paper. And so it was extraordinary, where sort of person after person was this larger-than-life character, from Fat Tony the bartender to Tony Yester the spy-turned-dope-dealer-turned-fugitive. When he was 16, he knocked up his 15-year-old girlfriend at Hauppauge High School. Filmography (by Job) Trailers and Videos. He might have sold them the submarine, taken the money and walked away with the money.. independent local journalism in Miami. "It is with tremendous heartfelt sadness to announce the passing of Michael James Gal "It was home to a lot of shrewd and nefarious characters.". "I thought I would kick up my heels together like 'Oh my God, I'm finally out,'" he says. In the distance, La Cordillera de San Blas cuts through the Panamanian jungle like a serrated knife. In January 1997, after he dropped his daughter off at school, Tarzan was arrested and hit with a 30-count federal indictment. "It was so slow I couldn't take it," he says. "Locked Up Abroad" Miami Mobster Take Down (TV Episode 2020) - IMDb While on routine patrol, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection plane spotted a suspicious speed boat. "I just watched Luis blow a guy away," Galeota heard himself say on tape. 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. "We were like: 'We want to get the fuck out of here. After that, Kristy closed Bongos. Panamanian police had been casing the Doll House, Moulin Rouge, and another joint, called Havana Club, for weeks. Galeota has seen several murders. Anywhere other than La Joya, this news would be shocking. He was 31. So the translator said she couldn't take a shower, didn't show up, and the case was delayed. Miami playboy, Russian gangster and Cuban spy tried to buy submarine Sixteen months later, the two men have yet to appear in court. "Then they'd tell me: 'They are as good as dead.'". "Bill was one of the most influential people in Miami," Galeota says. 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 "That's the goal," is all he'll offer. His father, Arnold, was a strait-laced sales manager but a distant and disapproving dad. While another new prisoner was beaten and robbed, Galeota was untouched. Galeota says the police had already gotten what they wanted: Porky's demise. Kristy was a self-described "firecracker" who had also escaped from an abusive home and wanted attention. Tony Galeta. Luckier still, a powerful Colombian inmate named Mauricio Ramrez recognized Galeota from his restaurant. 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. I just called a friend who had a friend and asked if he could get us a sub. Access is free so discover Tony Galeota's story today. And when his mother was distraught over a broken washing machine, he filled the house with new appliances. The year before, his father helped him land a job as a wedding DJ. All the services here are free. 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. 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. The 43-year-old is shaped like a mini refrigerator: short and squat, with a shaved head and wide-set emerald eyes. View Tony Galeota's 1940 US census record to find family members, occupation details & more. 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.
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