Wrongly imprisoned. But in South Florida, he was once a strip club king. The year before, his father helped him land a job as a wedding DJ. Sign Up. "Running a club in that neighborhood, win or lose, you've got to fight.". This story has been shared 173,716 times. Kristy caught Tony cheating several times, she says. They had girls in every city. When a dancer clapped her ass cheeks like a maraca, a customer's hands instinctively rose to touch them. Guards with machine guns man rusty metal towers. The club was very successful. The two ran Porky's for another decade after Fainberg's deportation. 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. "They would describe what they looked like," Galeota says. He called his cartel contacts and arranged to meet them in the pickup area of the Madrid train station. Instead, they eat rice for lunch and dinner, drink dirty river water, and use a hole in the ground for a toilet. View the profiles of people named Anthony Galeota. Filmography (by Job) Trailers and Videos. Galeota examines a bruise from a prison fight in La Joya. We have a lot of laughs about it now," he says. By now, she knows of his many infidelities, including that he lived and slept with some of the girls at the Doll House. At the entrance to La Joya, ant hills and wasp nests surround a wooden sign. 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. Juan, Tarzan and law enforcement insisted there was no way hed agree to participate in the documentary. 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. With dark hair and pale, wide-set eyes, teenage Tony resembled a stocky Frank Sinatra. Like a concert pianist, Tony Galeota has spent his life honing a single skill since he was a teenager. and help keep the future of New Times, Use of this website constitutes acceptance of our. 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. The fear was well founded, considering what went down when Tarzan linked up with Cuban outlaws Juan Almeida and Nelson Tony Yester. This time, I'm innocent.". Anywhere other than La Joya, this news would be shocking. Russian mobsters learned about their comrade's successful venture, and adopted the club as a virtual office. He ogled the women standing on corners in their underwear and high heels. But the Doll House and Moulin Rouge remain closed. Miami mobster Tony Galeota is locked up in Panama after being framed for drug dealing and human trafficking. "It's not an easy choice," she says. Tony Galeota. 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. Anthony Galeota was born October 17, 1968, on Long Island. "I don't care how strong you are; that's going to affect your marriage," she says. 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. I know its gonna be a strange question. Over the course of three months, undercover detectives made dozens of visits, tallying up a vivid snapshot of the club: "15 purchases of cocaine, four purchases of MDMA, one purchase of Xanax, one purchase of marijuana, 18 solicitations for prostitution, [and] 20 lewd acts.". Galeota is no angelic Andy Dufresne, the main character in Shawshank who serves two decades behind bars for a crime he didn't commit. "But she's never going to forget. Tony Galeota lived in 1954, at address, Massachusetts. "I was just numb.". Instead, Galeota admits he's done bad things, such as. He turned himself in a few days later, but the lounge's owner decided to close the cursed club. Galeota's sheer size and mob connections are the only things keeping him from getting shivved in the dark. 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. Tony is my friend, and well always love each other. It was a Foxtrot-class submarine, or Project 641 as the Soviets called it. But Monday morning, when it came time to walk out of La Joya, there was no vehicle waiting. 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. The value then triples to $100,000 per kilo at the street level when it's busted down for individual use. Thanks to a successful appeal, Almeida served only 18 months for his part in the sub caper. Panama had gone from paradise to purgatory. The gig introduced him to a lifelong vice. When Galeota arrived in Miami in the summer of 1991, the city was awash in coke, crack, and drug cash. 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. "I wouldn't leave a dog in that prison, let alone my husband.". Galeota is one of several Americans locked up here. Its Colombian dancers were in Panama on six-month tourist visas, weren't licensed as prostitutes, and weren't getting required weekly health checkups. 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. Guards with machine guns man rusty metal towers. 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. We've been here for two years!' Biography. But when he opens a new club in Panama City, the competition isn't happy and frames him for drug dealing. Russian immigrant Ludwig Fainberg, a.k.a. Log in or sign up for Facebook to connect with friends, family and people you know. Kristy was a self-described "firecracker" who had also escaped from an abusive home and wanted attention. 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. "They shot him in the middle of the night," Galeota continues quietly, "and buried his body behind the pavilion.". "She hasn't worked for 15 years. MIAMI BEACH (CBSMiami) The Coast Guard offloaded about $93 million of cocaine Thursday afternoon on Miami Beach. If Galeota is freed, it will be a major blow for Panama's prostitution crackdown. I said, Thank you, Cali cartel. "But I've always paid for everything, either with stitches in my head, concussions, or jail time. Galeota jumped at the deal. Police repeatedly raided the club, yet Galeota escaped unscathed every time. A judge eventually dropped the human trafficking charge, but Galeota still rotted in his sordid cell alongside insects the size of small dogs. 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. Family members can also bring them food and clean water, however, and inmates bribe guards to smuggle in additional items. 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. Sometimes we get a little excited when we find the amount of cocaine we found, said Castro. When he was 16, he knocked up his 15-year-old girlfriend at Hauppauge High School. He was a character.. 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. 4:00AM. "Anthony has been in jail for more than 15 months, and a judge hasn't even heard his case yet!" He was 31. Galeota is one of several Americans locked up here. But Tony had darker secrets. But Galeota's problems aren't completely behind him. He called me in two days and he asked me, do we want the submarine with missiles or without missiles? says Tarzan. Once they spotted the plane, they changed course which is suspicious for us, said Boatswains Mate 1st Class, Joshua McElhaney with the Coast Guard. Indeed, court records show that Seidle was a target of the federal wiretapping investigation. And, above all, selling it.
When he left to open a bona fide brothel in Panama, Galeota thought the country's lax prostitution laws would make him rich. A tattoo of an Italian Mafioso emerges from an extra-large sleeveless T-shirt. 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. We asked them some questions and some of their information didnt quite add up, so we conducted a boarding.. "I used to have to patch Tony up all the time," Kristy says. 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 goods came from sources in the freshly fallen Soviet Union, a place where everything seemed to be up for grabs at ridiculously low prices. Galeota tried going straight, opening a coffee shop in downtown Panama City. I hoped to walk away from the deal with $10 million.. In hand-painted white lettering, it reads, "Dear visitors. In January 2017, Almeida got federally charged by the Drug Enforcement Administration with conspiracy to possess narcotics with intent to distribute. "She would use shoe polish to change our driver's licenses so we could go to clubs and drink when we were 15. But it bored him. He faced nine years in prison, but because he provided evidence against Almeida, he served just three years before being deported to his adopted homeland of Israel. Nearly 300 feet long with 10 torpedo tubes (empty in this case), it was diesel but could be converted to electric for silent running. ", 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. When his dad lost his job, Tony paid the bills. A dozen plainclothes cops poured in with pistols drawn. 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. "Bill was one of the most influential people in Miami," Galeota says. Prostitution was so common at Porky's that the club had fixed places and prices, Galeota says. He and Fainberg were on their way to riches thanks to powerful friends and legalized prostitution. But he insists that, for once, he has done nothing wrong. The 43-year-old is shaped like a mini refrigerator: short and squat, with a shaved head and wide-set emerald eyes. He was talking to Fainberg about a murder he'd witnessed in Porky's parking lot. Prisoners eat stale bread and a slice of cheese for breakfast; rice and sometimes beans is their lunch and dinner. ", - 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. 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. Sign Up. local news and culture, Michael E. Miller Unfortunately, Galeota's defense isn't as simple as quoting strippers, says his lawyer, Guillermina McDonald. 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. "Like me, he was a black sheep who could do nothing right.". 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. Banks seized all seven of his apartments. Tony Gogetta. This time, I'm innocent.". local Journalism in South Florida. Here, Galeota is just one of 500 prisoners crammed into a filthy cell block designed to hold 200 people. "That clean, business-friendly, postcard-Panama bullshit is just a faade," Galeota says. She's forgiven me, for the most part. See also: "From Porky's to Panamanian Prison: Web Extra.". "Whenever there is an American businessman involved in crime here in Panama, it becomes an important case. "My father wasn't in the mob, but his friends were," Tony says. Finally, on May 23, the gate on Galeota's cramped cell swung open, and he was free to go. Photo courtesy of Josh Weiss A prisoner poses with a gun smuggled into La Joya with help from guards. "I'm not a religious person, but I believe I went to jail because I was living like a rock star -- running around with all these women, drinking a bottle of vodka every day for two years," he says. Galeota saw an opportunity. They tried to squeeze Fainberg to get Seidle. Photo courtesy of Josh Weiss - Giant insects infest the prison. local news and culture, Michael E. Miller independent local journalism in Miami. Eventually, he moved two dozen ladies to Panama City. The nightmare deepened for Galeota. In January 1997, after he dropped his daughter off at school, Tarzan was arrested and hit with a 30-count federal indictment. There was a spate of murders, several police raids, and a federal drug-trafficking trial. On a crowded balcony overlooking La Joya, Galeota describes the past 16 months as a nightmare. These interdiction's were part of Operation Martillo, an international operation to fight illegal trafficking. "A family type thing, like an ale house with wings and beer," he says. 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.. S10 E10 - Miami Mobster Take Down Tony Galeota is framed for drug trafficking in Panama City. This business has been very good to me.". They also discovered the club was registered as a massage parlor, not a brothel. Because of his age, he escaped with six months' probation. 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. Nobody was impressed more than Kristy Sharpe, an 18-year-old waitress from Orlando with blond hair, blue eyes, and lightly freckled skin. But in South Florida, he was once a strip club king. Become a member to support the independent voice of South Florida Its about 2,800 kilos, about a ton and a half of contraband. Anthony Galeota was born October 17, 1968, on Long Island. As he sweated in jail, Galeota's Panamanian empire crumbled. "But I've always paid for everything, either with stitches in my head, concussions, or jail time. "We treated the women well.". "That's the problem.". 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. The Coast Guard said the eight-member crew cooperated and was taken into custody. 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. It could be worse. "These guys were into just about everything," Assistant U.S. Attorney Diana Fernandez said at the time. "When you're in La Joya for two years, you get used to that environment," Galeota says. I told Juan, I said, Hey. If only there were a place where prostitution was legal, he thought, a city full of beautiful women like Miami, but no rules. The 43-year-old is shaped like a mini refrigerator: short and squat, with a shaved head and wide-set emerald eyes. Then an old friend showed up. Moreover, trafficking prostitutes and drugs and involvement in organized crime are some serious charges.". 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 I'm not asking her to.". Half an hour later, Galeota was guarding the door when a car rolled up with the window down. His Doll House dream began at Porky's. 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. "It was puppy love," he 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. Its impossible but only because its true. S10 E10 Miami Mobster Take Down. 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. "When you go to prison, it's like dying, but you get to see your own funeral," Galeota says. They put a hit out on him when he disappeared with the money, while Juan and Tarzan took the legal fall in Miami. "I lived it up in Miami," he says. So the translator said she couldn't take a shower, didn't show up, and the case was delayed.
Three weeks after the Doll House raid, Kristy was working the bar at Bongos when three teenagers walked into the restaurant. And last year, Yester was finally arrested in Rome on charges unrelated to the submarine while en route to a wedding. You could not mislead him in any way or you could tell that the consequences could be serious, but I loved him. The message was that the cocaine traffickers would kill Yesters family members. This story has been shared 121,048 times. "It is with tremendous heartfelt sadness to announce the passing of Michael James. See Photos. But Galeota's plan would soon go catastrophically wrong. Controlling it. When youre rolling with the criminal underworld, its always weird; its really weird in Russia.. But his mind was on another kind of riches. Even then, however, he couldn't sleep. Furious and Busted Rick Cedar steals radios to support his family. According to Yester, the cartel provided an initial payment of $10 million. He bought seven properties pretty much sight unseen.". Police repeatedly raided the club, yet Galeota escaped unscathed every time. "There was no transportation, no cops, no nothing," he says. But when the house of cards tumbles, John . More than anything, Galeota is grateful that his family kept faith in him. They were all together when Tony worked for the Russin mobsters in Porky's club as its manager. The drugs will be turned over to the DEA. His father, Arnold, was a strait-laced sales manager but a distant and disapproving dad. Between the restaurant and the Doll House, he was making enough to retire in five years. And when his mother was distraught over a broken washing machine, he filled the house with new appliances. "They shot him in the middle of the night," Galeota continues quietly, "and buried his body behind the pavilion.". "My father wasn't in the mob, but his friends were," Tony says. Panama's judicial system is outdated and overburdened, she says. He created a souped-up cigarette boat that went for $2 million and was presumably used to transport cocaine. He was recently sentenced to serve around six years in federal prison. Then she'd charge my friends $50 each," 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. It had been ten years since U.S. With dark hair and pale, wide-set eyes, teenage Tony resembled a stocky Frank Sinatra. They finally fled the country this past July, leaving Tony alone. People named Tony Galeta. The gig introduced him to a lifelong vice. Two days later, he was transferred to La Joya a hellish cinder-block complex an hour outside of Panama City. I just called a friend who had a friend and asked if he could get us a sub. We did outsmart the FBI, we did outsmart the DEA, we even did outsmart the court, Tarzan says in the film. 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.