Anthony Galeota was born October 17, 1968, on Long Island. 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. Then an old friend showed up. Between the restaurant and the Doll House, he was making enough to retire in five years. His Doll House dream began at Porky's. Become a member to support the independent voice of South Florida Tony Galeota Age And Family. He and Kristy struck up an unlikely romance. It was a Foxtrot-class submarine, or Project 641 as the Soviets called it. A sign on the latter reads, "District Attorney for Drugs: Do Not Enter." 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. 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 young mobster needed to lay low, so the Pacciones sent him south to a strip club called the Porthole Pub in Pompano Beach. 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. But instead of classical music, his specialty is sex. Like a concert pianist, Tony Galeota has spent his life honing a single skill since he was a teenager. It wasn't until he ordered some Italian food and a cold Guinness that he finally felt like he was free. He and Fainberg were on their way to riches thanks to powerful friends and legalized prostitution. A tattoo of an Italian Mafioso emerges from an extra-large sleeveless T-shirt. Like a concert pianist, Tony Galeota has spent his life honing a single skill since he was a teenager. Make a one-time donation today for as little as $1. Galeota's sheer size and mob connections are the only things keeping him from getting shivved in the dark. I know its gonna be a strange question. Back in South Florida, Kristy Galeota vacillates between outrage and empathy for her husband. The drugs will be turned over to the DEA. "Luis pulled out a .38 and shot the guy in the chest. 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. Get the latest updates in news, food, music and culture, and receive special offers direct to your inbox. Anywhere other than La Joya, this news would be shocking. But his mind was on another kind of riches. 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. "The first month, we had $15,000 in gross sales. Within weeks of its April 2011 opening, the club was raking in $6,000 on good nights. "This case has had a big impact here," says Jos Otero, a reporter for Panamanian newspaper La Prensa. 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. Photo Gallery. Thousands of teachers walk out demanding pay, funding incr Canadian teacher with size-Z prosthetic breasts placed on paid leave, What's next for Buster Murdaugh after dad's murder conviction, life sentence, US home prices just did something they haven't done since 2012, Rebel Wilson says Meghan Markle isnt as naturally warm as Prince Harry, Kristen Doute supports Ariana Madix amid mutual ex Tom Sandovals scandal, Celeb-loved jewelry brand Dorsey drops dazzling new styles, Undertaker transforms coffin into barbecue grill, Tom Sizemore And The Dangerous Burden of Desperation, Tom Sandoval breaks silence on Ariana Madix split amid cheating claims. "I brought in music and women," Galeota says. His attorney has warned him that prosecutors will likely appeal, so he plans to stay in Panama until his case is resolved. "But I've always paid for everything, either with stitches in my head, concussions, or jail time. A judge eventually dropped the human trafficking charge, but Galeota still rotted in his sordid cell alongside insects the size of small dogs. "But she's never going to forget. The entire situation sounds like something dreamed up for a Miami Vice-inspired action thriller, but it actually happened in the 1990s and the trio came very close to pulling it off before one of them pocketed the cartels millions and went on the run. Galeota is not exactly repentant. He was 31. "They murdered a guy in here a couple of days ago," Tony Galeota 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. Galeota saw an opportunity. "Their connections were bigger than ours," he says. June 4, 2013 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. The charismatic teenager sold the stolen suits or electronics at strip clubs or used-car lots. He decked out the Doll House with five upstairs rooms equipped with king-size beds, mirrors, lube, condoms, and showers, and brought in dozens of Colombian women, who could earn $120 split with the club for an hour of sex. He called me in two days and he asked me, do we want the submarine with missiles or without missiles? says Tarzan. 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. Rats, roaches, and beetles the size of Chihuahuas crawl over inmates at night. Tony Galeota. Moreover, trafficking prostitutes and drugs and involvement in organized crime are some serious charges.". The dead and dying are piled into wheelbarrows and left by the front gate until guards arrive in the morning. And there was absolutely no bullshit. Miami's independent source of S10 E10 - Miami Mobster Take Down Tony Galeota is framed for drug trafficking in Panama City. 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. Anthony Galeota was born October 17, 1968, on Long Island. local Journalism in South Florida. 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. 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. He also owned the Russian restaurant Babushka, which was a magnet for snowbirding criminals from his homeland. 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. and help keep the future of New Times, Use of this website constitutes acceptance of our, running Miami's most infamous strip club, Porky's, Tony Galeota: From Running Porky's, Miami's Most Notorious Strip Joint, to Rotting in a Panamanian Jail, Sex and Drugs in the Champagne Room: The Truth About Porky's and Other Miami Strip Clubs. A deep bass line rattled customers' chests as they downed overpriced drinks. But Galeota's plan would soon go catastrophically wrong. Tony Galeota Tony Galeota. "We were like: 'We want to get the fuck out of here. one of the kids shouted as he pulled a handkerchief over his face and wildly swung a revolver. Michael Galeota, who starred on the Disney Channel's "The Jersey" died Sunday, according to Variety. Galeota is one of several Americans locked up here. Galeota was hit with felony drug and prostitution charges. "Thank God I'm out," he tells New Times in his first interview since his release. "We just meshed," she says. 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. The gig introduced him to a lifelong vice. When a dancer clapped her ass cheeks like a maraca, a customer's hands instinctively rose to touch them. Finally, on May 23, the gate on Galeota's cramped cell swung open, and he was free to go. But Monday morning, when it came time to walk out of La Joya, there was no vehicle waiting. Make a one-time donation today for as little as $1. With little oversight, military leaders acted as if they were independent of the government. The 43-year-old is shaped like a mini refrigerator: short and squat, with a shaved head and wide-set emerald eyes. Biography. In the meantime, he's spending time with his wife and kids. He could convince you that the sky was green." "It was puppy love," he says. 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. Girls charged $150 or more for sex. His mother, Bonnie Gellilti, was "a bit of a criminal," Tony remembers. "Now I'm living in hell.". Facebook gives people the power. 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. He sold the shop and in 2010 opened Bongos, a restaurant serving wings and beer. Tony Galeta. independent local journalism in Miami. (CBS Miami). So if you wanna do it, the time is now, and essentially, its happening one way or another, so you might be the person to author your story. "My father wasn't in the mob, but his friends were," Tony says. While Galeota avoided testifying, Fainberg faced 30 counts including racketeering and conspiracy to traffic cocaine and heroin. I hoped to walk away from the deal with $10 million.. Instead, he says competitors pulled government strings to screw him. Prisoners eat stale bread and a slice of cheese for breakfast; rice and sometimes beans is their lunch and dinner. She's forgiven me, for the most part. 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. Tony Galeota's age is expected to be 52. 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. "Miami is a place where I would love to live," he pronounced, "and where I would love to die." By the mid-'90s, Galeota had turned Porky's into a one-stop shop for strippers, sex, and serious drugs. Police again surrounded Porky's in the early hours of May 9, 2009. Galeota's sheer size and mob connections are the only things keeping him from getting shivved in the dark. "A family type thing, like an ale house with wings and beer," he says. SO I started with the cops and I had been kind of circling the others without knowing if it was really possible or not. Tony and Kristy were shocked and out of a job. 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? "I'm used to getting my water from a rain bucket, not hot from the tap." He turned himself in a few days later, but the lounge's owner decided to close the cursed club. She's forgiven me, for the most part. "They had what seemed like a dynamite case, but it has ended up in pieces.". Miami's independent source of McDonald expects those will be dismissed as well, but not for months. Then she'd charge my friends $50 each," he says. But he insists that, for once, he has done nothing wrong. It had been ten years since U.S. More at IMDbPro Contact Info: View agent, publicist, legal on IMDbPro. Its a lot of f- -king paper. 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. ", Instead, he found another, tighter-knit family: the mob. We travelled all the time. 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. Then she'd charge my friends $50 each," he says. Instead of celebrating, he walked through the scuzzy neighborhood until he found a shabby motel. Log in or sign up for Facebook to connect with friends, family and people you know. 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. ), The narcotics charge, however, still stands despite little evidence linking Galeota to the drugs. By then, the club's criminal clientele and Fainberg's increasingly lavish lifestyle had raised eyebrows. Controlling it. A year later, it was $115,000 per month.". Guards with machine guns man rusty metal towers. "He was a smooth-talker. I have to tell you, all my enemies are dead, and Im happy, he says in the documentary. "My wife could have left me. "Whenever there is an American businessman involved in crime here in Panama, it becomes an important case. 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 February 2011, and he was preparing to open the Doll House, his own strip club in Panama. And I'm not asking her to.". document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. "I was always looking for their approval," he says, "but I never got that. Sometimes we get a little excited when we find the amount of cocaine we found, said Castro. He ogled the women standing on corners in their underwear and high heels. "They murdered a guy in here a couple of days ago," Tony Galeota says. "I want to go legit when I get out, but if the economy is bad, I might go back to the industry," he says. Rising swiftly through the ranks, John buries his conscience to become a notorious Mafia hitman. "I couldn't take all the people who wanted to come.". Anthony Galeota was born October 17, 1968, on Long Island. Behind him, 12-foot-high fences topped with spools of barbed wire frame a muddy soccer field. Michael Galeota, who starred on the Disney Channel's "The Jersey" died Sunday, according to Variety. Docs need stars just like features need stars. 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. Panamanian police had been casing the Doll House, Moulin Rouge, and another joint, called Havana Club, for weeks. Make a one-time donation today for as little as $1. Apparently knowing all too well how things would shake out, Yester decided to screw his partners and take off for Amsterdam with the first $10 million. "That's the problem.". But their courtship was cut short. When Galeota arrived, his mobster reputation preceded him. "He had that guido effect on me," she says. Galeota believes that his arrest has little to do with a renewed commitment to the law in Panama. But when he opens a new club in Panama City, the competition isn't happy and frames him for drug dealing. Twice, American authorities had investigated Galeota. Behind him, 12-foot-high fences topped with spools of barbed wire frame a muddy soccer field. Almeida, back in Moscow, trying to work out yet another deal and not realizing that this one had already soured, managed to temporarily elude arrest. He headed right to his beloved Miami, Florida. Photo courtesy of Josh Weiss Surrounded by Colombian strippers, Galeota gives a toast during a party at the Doll House. More detailed reports on the crimes weren't available. Tony Gogetta. When his younger brother was molested, he beat the suspected perpetrator to a pulp. 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. "My father wasn't in the mob, but his friends were," Tony says.
As Yester laid low with the cash, cartel liaisons in the United States, aware that they had been burned, pressured Almeida to show them where Yesters relatives lived in and around Miami. One scammer stole from another scammer; of course I accept it, he says. Juan felt like he had no choice, says Russell. Again, the charges were dropped. 8:00AM. ), 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. But she insists that her husband's imprisonment has brought them closer. 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. and help keep the future of New Times, Use of this website constitutes acceptance of our, From Porky's to Panamanian Prison: Web Extra. Filmography (by Job) Trailers and Videos. 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. "This case has had a big impact here," says Jos Otero, a reporter for Panamanian newspaper La Prensa. Eventually, however, he made his way to Tarzan. So the translator said she couldn't take a shower, didn't show up, and the case was delayed. ", Coast Guard Offloads More Than $93 Million In Cocaine, Miami Beach. 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. 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. In January 2017, Almeida got federally charged by the Drug Enforcement Administration with conspiracy to possess narcotics with intent to distribute. As far as he was concerned, he owned the military base. "You see who wants to fuck your wife, who wants to rob you, and who your real friends are.". Galeota is one of several Americans locked up here. One can imagine they did plenty of drugs.. (A New York Police Department spokesman says records from that far back aren't available.) A judge eventually dropped the human trafficking charge, but Galeota still rotted in his sordid cell alongside insects the size of small dogs. It was a caper, for sure., He says: Tarzan was the lynchpin to it, because it was his story. The heavy-set Italian even signed a release. 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'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. He left, but returned with a gun. He was a big, big fish.". Born on June 3, 1924 at Hartford. The two ran Porky's for another decade after Fainberg's deportation. All the services here are free. The message was that the cocaine traffickers would kill Yesters family members. He didn't stay long. 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. "Another night at Porky's, another shooting," he remembers now from his prison cell in Panama. I had kind of, little by little, put the word out to everybody among the cops, all the law enforcement side as well as among the crooks and said, Gotta meet Tony, gotta meet Tony, gotta meet Tony knowing that he was the only guy who really knew what happened. 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
Join Facebook to connect with Anthony Galeota and others you may know. Catherine says she slept with customers because she needed the money to support her family. 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.
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