. A year later, it was $115,000 per month.". "Whenever there is an American businessman involved in crime here in Panama, it becomes an important case. "When you're in La Joya for two years, you get used to that environment," Galeota says. 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. He and Kristy struck up an unlikely romance. Jimmy Galeota has spent the last month-and-a-half grieving his older brother Michael's death - but perhaps the most difficult part of it all to swallow has been the bizarre circumstances that. When crews were launched to investigate, the suspected smugglers threw several packages into the water. 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. 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. Over the years, Galeota saw nearly a dozen shootings at Porky's, some of them fatal. Its our mission down there besides search and rescue. Has a stint in Panamanian prison reformed Miami's most notorious strip club manager? Documentary Drama When Miami mobster Tony Galeota opens a club in Panama City, the competition frames him for drug dealing and human trafficking. See Photos. 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 real moneymaker. A tattoo of an Italian Mafioso emerges from an extra-large sleeveless T-shirt. Get started U.S. Yearbooks Name Index, 1890-1979. Become a member to support the independent voice of South Florida 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. 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. And like the Italian-American crooner, he loved women a little too much. Panama became Galeota's personal paradise. Explore More. We break down the best movies and series to watch in November in theaters and streaming. Join the New Times community and help support Galeota is one of several Americans locked up here. "This case has had a big impact here," says Jos Otero, a reporter for Panamanian newspaper La Prensa. 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. "She would use shoe polish to change our driver's licenses so we could go to clubs and drink when we were 15. Then an old friend showed up. Update information for Tony Galeota . 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. He might have sold them the submarine, taken the money and walked away with the money.. The gig introduced him to a lifelong vice. This time, I'm innocent.". "There were beautiful girls, just walking the streets, giving blowjobs for $10 or $15.". 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. Inmates are fed bread and cheese for breakfast and rice (sometimes beans) for lunch and dinner. At night, the guards lock the gate and leave, turning over control of each cell block to prisoners. ", Coast Guard Offloads More Than $93 Million In Cocaine, Miami Beach. "I'm used to getting my water from a rain bucket, not hot from the tap." When Galeota arrived in Miami in the summer of 1991, the city was awash in coke, crack, and drug cash. Join the New Times community and help support 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. He left, but returned with a gun. Greed got the better of him. "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. Then my friend got back to me a couple days later and said there was just one question: Do you want a sub with missiles or without? , For all their camaraderie, though, the criminals opinions of one another were mixed. October 4, 2012 But he insists that, for once, he has done nothing wrong. But he insists that, for once, he has done nothing wrong. Access is free so discover Tony Galeota's story today. We didn't even have to have sex unless we wanted to," says a Colombian stripper named Catherine. Shea fatally blasted bouncer Richard Jimenez in the face and then opened fire on the dancers, shooting one in the chest and another in the head. More than anything, Galeota is grateful that his family kept faith in him. He turned himself in a few days later, but the lounge's owner decided to close the cursed club. "That clean, business-friendly, postcard-Panama bullshit is just a faade," Galeota says. "I lived it up in Miami," he says. The Porky's party nearly came to a sudden end in early 1997. Director Tiller Russell Stars Ludwig Fainberg Juan Almeida Nelson Yester See production, box office & company info Add to Watchlist 44 User reviews 9 Critic reviews Awards 1 nomination Videos 2 Trailer 1:46 But all the cops found were five grams of weed, a bottle of Viagra, and some mysterious yellow pills. "I want to go legit when I get out, but if the economy is bad, I might go back to the industry," he says. When a dancer clapped her ass cheeks like a maraca, a customer's hands instinctively rose to touch them. Russell did as he was told and flew to the appointed city in Africa; as soon as he walked into his hotel room, the phone rang and he was instructed to be downstairs in five minutes, where Tony whisked him off in a Porsche Cayenne and they spent several surreal days together; Tony showed the director his Russian fighter jet, which had $5million in the cockpit as the fugitives getaway plan, and told his part of the story. By the time they returned to Long Island later that night, a pimp was born. Between the restaurant and the Doll House, he was making enough to retire in five years. the agent said. ", 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. Panama had gone from paradise to purgatory. Behind him, 12-foot-high fences topped with spools of barbed wire frame a muddy soccer field. Prisoners eat stale bread and a slice of cheese for breakfast; rice and sometimes beans is their lunch and dinner. "My father wasn't in the mob, but his friends were," Tony says. More at IMDbPro Contact Info: View agent, publicist, legal on IMDbPro. Galeota saw an opportunity. As the authorities closed in, they picked up Juan and Tarzan, but they couldnt find Tony and neither could the cartel. But it bored him. Twice, American authorities had investigated Galeota. His father, Arnold, was a strait-laced sales manager but a distant and disapproving dad. 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. 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. It was a weeknight, and Porky's was washed in pale-pink neon light. So we met with a realtor, got high, and Tony got stupid with money. "He had that guido effect on me," she says. Prostitution is legal in Panama," he complains. Police repeatedly raided the club, yet Galeota escaped unscathed every time. 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. He is currently being held in Italy. Then she'd charge my friends $50 each," he says. He paid for her to secretly get an abortion. 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. Become a member to support the independent voice of South Florida Juan, Tarzan and law enforcement insisted there was no way hed agree to participate in the documentary. 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. Tony Galeto. ", 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. Its a great satisfaction after being two months deployed and everybodys tired but you come home with a case like this its very satisfying, said Castro. View the profiles of people named Anthony Galeota. Log in or sign up for Facebook to connect with friends, family and people you know. This story has been shared 121,048 times. "Another night at Porky's, another shooting," he remembers now from his prison cell in Panama. Unfortunately, Galeota's defense isn't as simple as quoting strippers, says his lawyer, Guillermina McDonald. A man deeply embedded with Escobar's Medelln cartel, Tony had a notorious reputation as "a really bad guy"he was once caught with 41 passports, and featured on his own 1999 episode of America's. Locked up in one of the world's worst prisons, Tony has to prove his innocence and attempt an audacious escape. Galeota jumped at the deal. She is cute and curvy with dark hair and a button nose. The heavy-set Italian even signed a release. Galeota already lived according to a gangster's code. "I lived it up in Miami," he says. 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 this was Hialeah.". We have a lot of laughs about it now," he says. 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. 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. This time, I'm innocent.". The young mobster needed to lay low, so the Pacciones sent him south to a strip club called the Porthole Pub in Pompano Beach. Find your friends on Facebook. Instead, they eat rice for lunch and dinner, drink dirty river water, and use a hole in the ground for a toilet. When Seidle died in 2008, Porky's political protection followed the 82-year-old to the grave. And like the Italian-American crooner, he loved women a little too much. "I'm in survival mode now," Galeota says, adding that he agonizes over being imprisoned for what he believes are unjust charges. 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. As for his career, his only oath is that he won't let his sons follow his example. The Coast Guard said four suspected smugglers were taken into custody and 32 bales of cocaine were found in the water. 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. Born on June 3, 1924 at Hartford. He was 31. And so from there, Juan showed up in Moscow with a vague, half-assed agreement with Tarzan he still had gotten me to come there without agreeing to be in the film, and he put me through the paces of taking me to the sauna and sort of took me on this insane kind of underworld tour of Moscow. "She would use shoe polish to change our driver's licenses so we could go to clubs and drink when we were 15. Awards. Michael Galeota, who starred on the Disney Channel's "The Jersey" died Sunday, according to Variety. If I were to make this story up and pitch it as a writer, producers would be like, Thats the worst pitch Ive ever heard. On Friday, May 17, Galeota got word that the judge had also dismissed the drug charge because of lack of evidence. Miami's independent source of "I'm used to getting my water from a rain bucket, not hot from the tap." We've been here for two years!' Next time, I will steal it back from him., Tarzan (left) at the site of the submarine. Rats, roaches, and beetles the size of Chihuahuas crawl over inmates at night. Two days later, he was transferred to La Joya a hellish cinder-block complex an hour outside of Panama City. When his dad lost his job, Tony paid the bills. The nightmare deepened for Galeota. Bonnie also shoplifted booze to sustain her hard drinking habit. But Monday morning, when it came time to walk out of La Joya, there was no vehicle waiting. His government protection would evaporate, the Doll House would be raided, his investments would be stolen, and he would be arrested. This business has been very good to me.". His father, Arnold, was a strait-laced sales manager but a distant and disapproving dad. October 4, 2012 His father, Arnold, was a strait-laced sales manager but a distant and disapproving dad. It had been ten years since U.S. Tarzan eventually testified against Juan and was deported to Israel, where he recanted his testimony meaning Juans conviction for conspiracy to traffic cocaine was overturned and he went free. "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. Three weeks after the Doll House raid, Kristy was working the bar at Bongos when three teenagers walked into the restaurant. Panamanian newspapers put "Operation Fiesta" on the front page as prosecutors alleged Galeota was part of an international crime ring. "My wife can say she has regrets, but that's bullshit," he says. But killings are common in Panama's worst prison, where the smell of raw sewage wafts over the yard, metal shackles hang from moldy staircases, and overcrowded cells house nearly 3,500 of the Western Hemisphere's vilest murderers, rapists, and drug traffickers. The gig introduced him to a lifelong vice. 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. He was, after all, working with an American playboy in Miami and a fugitive Cuban spy to procure this submarine. Make a one-time donation today for as little as $1. 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. That didnt stop Russell from trying to get them on board with doing a film about the submarine deal. Theyre nice guys [the cartel members], and I didnt ask what they needed the submarine for., If they woke up and were hungry, they would fly a private jet to Cancun for lunch, says Tiller Russell, director of Operation Odessa. Then theyd roll to Venezuela to check out a new casino. "I lived it up in Miami," he says. Girls charged $150 or more for sex. It was February 2011, and he was preparing to open the Doll House, his own strip club in Panama. 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. And theyre like, F*** yeah, lets do it. When youre rolling with the criminal underworld, its always weird; its really weird in Russia.. Photo courtesy of Josh Weiss Surrounded by Colombian strippers, Galeota gives a toast during a party at the Doll House. If anything, Galeota's life got even more out of control after Fainberg's arrest. For the most part, Doll House dancers agree. Follow this journalist on Twitter @MikeMillerMiami. GALEOTA, Joseph A., Sr. Joseph A. Galeota Sr., 86, of Ashford CT, died on Wednesday (January 26, 2011) at Windham Hospital from congestive heart failure. The FBI swooped in January 21, surrounding the club and arresting Fainberg. A judge eventually dropped the human trafficking charge, but Galeota still rotted in his sordid cell alongside insects the size of small dogs. "This case has had a big impact here," says Jos Otero, a reporter for Panamanian newspaper La Prensa. Galeota is not exactly repentant. "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. In court statements and interviews with New Times, they said Galeota gave them contracts to sign, cell phones and computers to use, and apartments in which to live. With dark hair and pale, wide-set eyes, teenage Tony resembled a stocky Frank Sinatra. Tarzans on board and essentially youre in the movie, one way or another. Then I ended up spending a great deal of what I like to call social engineering, which is kind of like the hanging out with all these guys theyre all very secretive cats with these very sketchy kind of criminal pasts. "You see who wants to fuck your wife, who wants to rob you, and who your real friends are.". "We just meshed," she says. "It is with tremendous heartfelt sadness to announce the passing of Michael James. (A New York Police Department spokesman says records from that far back aren't available.) Its impossible but only because its true. Here, Galeota is just one of 500 prisoners crammed into a filthy cell block designed to hold 200 people. But the man's paws were soon on her crotch again. 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. 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. But instead of classical music, his specialty is sex. His mother, Bonnie Gellilti, was "a bit of a criminal," Tony remembers. "They murdered a guy in here a couple of days ago," Tony Galeota says. Anthony Galeota was born October 17, 1968, on Long Island. Director Tiller Russell tells DailyMail.com that hed heard rumblings and rumors about the insane deal, but it was about seven years ago when he first got a concrete lead about Tarzan and his cronies. It was like this super weird, incredibly sketchy circumstance that we came together in, Russell tells DailyMail.com of his visit to the Mad Max-like prison where at night they lock the gates. Kristy caught Tony cheating several times, she says. 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. Upon seeing 10 thugs rush the vehicle and hijack it with the unsuspecting passenger in back, Yester realized that the remaining cash would not be forthcoming. "We were like: 'We want to get the fuck out of here. Catherine says she slept with customers because she needed the money to support her family. "My wife is never going to completely trust me. With little oversight, military leaders acted as if they were independent of the government. Thats why you have to do this kind of story as non-fiction., The initial meeting with Tarzan, however, was hampered by the fact that the Russian mob got wind of Russells visit, he says, and they threatened Tarzans life inside the jail if he shared his full story. Tony Kaleta. Facilitating it. The year before, his father helped him land a job as a wedding DJ. I was literally on a press tour for the last film, and I was in New York doing interviews and stuff I called the producers and said, Do you think we can get a million dollars in the next five days?. Galeota's sheer size and mob connections are the only things keeping him from getting shivved in the dark. Back in South Florida, Kristy Galeota vacillates between outrage and empathy for her husband. Log In. Everything here has a cost.". Its a great success overall. Police repeatedly raided the club, yet Galeota escaped unscathed every time. "It is with tremendous heartfelt sadness to announce the passing of Michael James Gal Make a one-time donation today for as little as $1. 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. Sign Up. Behind him, 12-foot-high fences topped with spools of barbed wire frame a muddy soccer field. We've received your submission. He told them he could get them the submarine for $35million, but said hes need the money in installments; when they gave him the first $10million, he kept the money for himself and disappeared. "Like me, he was a black sheep who could do nothing right.". "I've done a lot of shady things in the States," he admits. But Galeota's plan would soon go catastrophically wrong. People named Tony Goleta. Again, the charges were dropped. Tony Galeota has a wife named Kristy Galeota, with whom he lives. "They shot him in the middle of the night," Galeota continues quietly, "and buried his body behind the pavilion.". "They had what seemed like a dynamite case, but it has ended up in pieces.". On Friday, May 17, Galeota got word that the judge had also dismissed the drug charge because of lack of evidence. And, above all, selling it. "But I've always paid for everything, either with stitches in my head, concussions, or jail time. "It was home to a lot of shrewd and nefarious characters.". A large Russian man called Tarzan sits in an armchair against the backdrop of a cracked and stained wall, a pack of cigarettes, lighter and an ash tray on a table to his left, and he shrugs as he talks about a deal he tried to broker more than 20 years ago. Within weeks of its April 2011 opening, the club was raking in $6,000 on good nights. 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. A dozen plainclothes cops poured in with pistols drawn. "Then they'd tell me: 'They are as good as dead.'". His father, Arnold, was a strait-laced sales manager but a distant and disapproving dad. Yester told the Colombians that theyd have to pay $35 million for the vessel, even though Tarzan had talked the price down to $5.5 million plus just $600 for a crew to pilot it to Colombia. Photo Gallery. Miami mobster Tony Galeota is locked up in Panama after being framed for drug dealing and human trafficking. 4:00AM. He called his cartel contacts and arranged to meet them in the pickup area of the Madrid train station. These interdiction's were part of Operation Martillo, an international operation to fight illegal trafficking. Cops had made several controlled buys of drugs. Moreover, trafficking prostitutes and drugs and involvement in organized crime are some serious charges.". "These guys were into just about everything," Assistant U.S. Attorney Diana Fernandez said at the time. So I was literally stepping over dead bodies of the people who had been shanked and stuff over the course of the night.. In the distance, La Cordillera de San Blas cuts through the Panamanian jungle like a serrated knife. Facebook Email or phone Password Forgot account? #Torture #PanamGovernment #LaJoyaprisonPanam #PresidentVarela #Panam #Corruption. But the story of how the documentary got made is nearly as crazy as the caper plot itself. Furious and Busted Rick Cedar steals radios to support his family. 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. But when Galeota was arrested June 19, 2011, and charged with trafficking drugs and women, he was just as innocent as Stephen King's saintly inmate. When he was 16, he knocked up his 15-year-old girlfriend at Hauppauge High School. 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. We have a lot of laughs about it now," he says. Can he prove his innocence and escape? The 43-year-old is shaped like a mini refrigerator: short and squat, with a shaved head and wide-set emerald eyes. But killings are common in Panama's worst prison, where the smell of raw sewage wafts over the yard, metal shackles hang from moldy staircases, and overcrowded cells house nearly 3,500 of the Western Hemisphere's vilest murderers, rapists, and drug traffickers. While Galeota avoided testifying, Fainberg faced 30 counts including racketeering and conspiracy to traffic cocaine and heroin.
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