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In hand-painted white lettering, it reads, "Dear visitors. 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. Join the New Times community and help support independent When his younger brother was molested, he beat the suspected perpetrator to a pulp. Tony Galletta. Between the restaurant and the Doll House, he was making enough to retire in five years. "This country is corrupt. Episode 5: Spain /Sold My Soul Sometimes we get a little excited when we find the amount of cocaine we found, said Castro. "My wife can say she has regrets, but that's bullshit," he says. MICHAEL GALEOTA OBITUARY. "It is with tremendous heartfelt sadness to announce the passing of Michael James. 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. 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.". "My wife could have left me. 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. Prostitution in Miami had become too risky, he decided, but overseas sex tourism was soaring. See Photos. When a dancer clapped her ass cheeks like a maraca, a customer's hands instinctively rose to touch them. And twice they had given up. 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. Galeota was crammed into a sweltering holding cell with 150 others. He also owned the Russian restaurant Babushka, which was a magnet for snowbirding criminals from his homeland. By then, the club's criminal clientele and Fainberg's increasingly lavish lifestyle had raised eyebrows. Anthony Jr. was taken to a juvenile detention center that wasn't much better. "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. "Whenever there is an American businessman involved in crime here in Panama, it becomes an important case. S10 E10 - Miami Mobster Take Down Tony Galeota is framed for drug trafficking in Panama City. "I was just numb.". Michael Galeota, who starred on the Disney Channel's "The Jersey" died Sunday, according to Variety. Nearly 300 feet long with 10 torpedo tubes (empty in this case), it was diesel but could be converted to electric for silent running. Greed got the better of him. "I was 16 years old and amazed," he says. Miami's independent source of She's forgiven me, for the most part. Kristy was able to pay a lawyer $500 to get her son released, but there was no bond for Galeota's drug offense. When he was 16, he knocked up his 15-year-old girlfriend at Hauppauge High School. Even then, however, he couldn't sleep. 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. Prosecutors say police never filed the necessary paperwork. Meet me in Africa for a cup of coffee tomorrow.. Tony Goleta Profiles | Facebook 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. Anthony Galeota was born October 17, 1968, on Long Island. "I was always looking for their approval," he says, "but I never got that. "We treated the women well.". "Their connections were bigger than ours," he says. Then she'd charge my friends $50 each," he says. Tony Galeta. His name was Tony Galeota, he said, and he had run Porky's for 18 years before being locked up in Panama's worst prison for a crime he didn't commit. By the mid-'90s, Galeota had turned Porky's into a one-stop shop for strippers, sex, and serious drugs. Here, Galeota is just one of 500 prisoners crammed into a filthy cell block designed to hold 200 people. and help keep the future of New Times, Use of this website constitutes acceptance of our. Prisoners eat stale bread and a slice of cheese for breakfast; rice and sometimes beans is their lunch and dinner. 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. Instead of celebrating, he walked through the scuzzy neighborhood until he found a shabby motel. But his mind was on another kind of riches. Miami Mobster Take Down - YouTube After that, Kristy closed Bongos. Tony Galeota Tony Galeota. Follow Miami New Times on Facebook and Twitter @MiamiNewTimes. 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'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. 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?. On Friday, May 17, Galeota got word that the judge had also dismissed the drug charge because of lack of evidence. Skip Ancestry main menu Main Menu Then an old friend showed up. Facilitating it. But this was Hialeah.". 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 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. Guards with machine guns man rusty metal towers. That didnt stop Russell from trying to get them on board with doing a film about the submarine deal. Seidle was never charged with a crime. "Whenever there is an American businessman involved in crime here in Panama, it becomes an important case. The two were married in 1994 at a wedding full of mobsters. He and Kristy struck up an unlikely romance. He paid for her to secretly get an abortion. Furious and Busted Rick Cedar steals radios to support his family. "Another night at Porky's, another shooting," he remembers now from his prison cell in Panama. Galeota's enemies say that a life of sin has finally caught up with the flesh-peddler. So we met with a realtor, got high, and Tony got stupid with money. Sixteen months later, the two men have yet to appear in court. It was coke or pimping or messing with the wrong people.. Michael Galeota Obituary (1984 - 2016) Chicago Sun-Times Get the latest updates in news, food, music and culture, and receive special offers direct to your inbox. There was nothing unusual about it. "This case has had a big impact here," says Jos Otero, a reporter for Panamanian newspaper La Prensa. The person they were going to pay for the submarine was the officer who let them [into the naval base], says Russell. 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. The club was very successful. Tony Galeota's age is expected to be 52. "Now I'm living in hell.". One scammer stole from another scammer; of course I accept it, he says. But when the house of cards tumbles, John . Born on June 3, 1924 at Hartford. , updated Galeota is not exactly repentant. He hired 'Fat Tony' Galeota as Porky's manager. His father, Arnold, was a strait-laced sales manager but a distant and disapproving dad. So the translator said she couldn't take a shower, didn't show up, and the case was delayed. It continued at another local strip club, called Quarterbacks Playmates Lounge. He was talking to Fainberg about a murder he'd witnessed in Porky's parking lot. Banged Up Abroad - Wikipedia 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. 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. But he insists that, for once, he has done nothing wrong. Filthy and crowded cell block of La Joya Prison, Panama. Like a concert pianist, Tony Galeota has spent his life honing a single skill since he was a teenager. The drugs will be turned over to the DEA. Galeota also found himself in the back of an unmarked FBI car. 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. "It is with tremendous heartfelt sadness to announce the passing of Michael James Gal Galeota is no angelic Andy Dufresne, the main character in Shawshank who serves two decades behind bars for a crime he didn't commit. ", "You hear that?" 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. But Monday morning, when it came time to walk out of La Joya, there was no vehicle waiting. When he left to open a bona fide brothel in Panama, Galeota thought the country's lax prostitution laws would make him rich. "I lived it up in Miami," he says. With dark hair and pale, wide-set eyes, teenage Tony resembled a stocky Frank Sinatra. But killings are common in Panama's worst prison, where the smell of raw sewage wafts over the yard, metal shackles hang from mouldy staircases, and overcrowded cells house nearly 3,500 of the Western Hemisphere's vilest murderers, rapists, and drug traffickers. Then she'd charge my friends $50 each," he says. "He never forced us to do anything. Galeota may not be a good man, but he is brutally honest. Tarzan, got his first job in America as an enforcer for the Gambino crime family. 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 Tarzan a seasoned wheeler-dealer, strip club owner and former mob enforcer took it in his stride and went back to his partners with the response. 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 If he didnt give them the information, he was afraid that he would have gotten killed, and he was probably right., In the meantime, Yester may have been too in love with his eight-figure haul to really care and there was ultimately no retribution against his family. 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. When he left to open a bona fide brothel in Panama, Galeota thought the country's lax prostitution laws would make him rich. Luckier still, a powerful Colombian inmate named Mauricio Ramrez recognized Galeota from his restaurant. Inside the prison, the sign is a running joke. Behind him, 12-foot-high fences topped with spools of barbed wire frame a muddy soccer field. She is a high-powered attorney who has defended two former presidents in corruption cases, but even she hasn't been able to get Galeota out of jail yet. I definitely want his number and so I began chasing it from there and actually jumped on a plane, went down and smuggled myself into this Panamanian prison to meet with him.. The young mobster needed to lay low, so the Pacciones sent him south to a strip club called the Porthole Pub in Pompano Beach. The 43-year-old is shaped like a mini refrigerator: short and squat, with a shaved head and wide-set emerald eyes. His father, Arnold, was a strait-laced sales manager but a distant and disapproving dad. 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. "She would use shoe polish to change our driver's licenses so we could go to clubs and drink when we were 15. Because of his age, he escaped with six months' probation. Police repeatedly raided the club, yet Galeota escaped unscathed every time. 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. 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. But all the cops found were five grams of weed, a bottle of Viagra, and some mysterious yellow pills. This business has been very good to me.". Tony Galeota lived in 1954, at address, Massachusetts. "There were beautiful girls, just walking the streets, giving blowjobs for $10 or $15.". Disney Star Michael Galeota Death: Brother Jimmy Opens Up About Family We break down the best movies and series to watch in November in theaters and streaming. If only there were a place where prostitution was legal, he thought, a city full of beautiful women like Miami, but no rules. "When you're in La Joya for two years, you get used to that environment," Galeota says. By now, she knows of his many infidelities, including that he lived and slept with some of the girls at the Doll House. As the couple drove south on I-95, they thought they were leaving the worst behind them. Log in or sign up for Facebook to connect with friends, family and people you know. They arrested 18 suspects, including Galeota, several strippers, and most employees. 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. ", McDonald has succeeded, however, in chipping away at the case, persuading a judge three weeks ago to drop the trafficking charge on a technicality. The Doll House couldn't expand fast enough to meet the influx of sex tourists. 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. Galeota has seen several murders. He was a loan shark: generously offering money but punishing those who didn't pay back. View Tony Galeota's 1940 US census record to find family members, occupation details & more. "It's not an easy choice," she says. 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. "But I've always paid for everything, either with stitches in my head, concussions, or jail time. And when his mother was distraught over a broken washing machine, he filled the house with new appliances. Sixteen months later, the two men have yet to appear in court. Panama had gone from paradise to purgatory. 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. Instead, Galeota admits he's done bad things, such as. Can he prove his innocence and escape? A tattoo of an Italian Mafioso emerges from an extra-large sleeveless T-shirt. Anywhere other than La Joya, this news would be shocking. 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. 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. He was recently sentenced to serve around six years in federal prison. ), The narcotics charge, however, still stands despite little evidence linking Galeota to the drugs. Reborn behind bars. "They shot him in the middle of the night," Galeota continues quietly, "and buried his body behind the pavilion.". Again, the charges were dropped. This time, I'm innocent.". Porky's: Notes from inside South Florida's sleaziest strip club Sheila Flynn For Dailymail.com I never got a straight answer [about why he was in jail there], says Russell. Just not a strip club. Galeota already lived according to a gangster's code. While Kristy was still in the States, he lived with five of his Colombian prostitutes. "He had that guido effect on me," she says. Log In. The Coast Guard said four suspected smugglers were taken into custody and 32 bales of cocaine were found in the water. 8:00AM. Prostitution is legal in Panama," he complains. "When you go to prison, it's like dying, but you get to see your own funeral," Galeota says. Galeota is one of several Americans locked up here. "There was probably a lot more fun going on at Porky's than we even knew of," says one Hialeah police officer who asked not to be identified. This time, I'm innocent.". 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. Here, Galeota is just one of 500 prisoners crammed into a filthy cell block designed to hold 200 people. Operation Odessa (2018) - IMDb Tarzan, Almeida and Yester had previously teamed on multimillion-dollar deals for Colombian cocaine barons, snagging motorcycles and Kamov 32 military helicopters (with two rotors and capable of transporting 5,000 kilos of cocaine via hook). The heavy-set Italian even signed a release. 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 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. Instead, he's trapped in a labyrinthine legal system, alone and unable to speak Spanish. But their courtship was cut short. 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. "They murdered a guy in here a couple of days ago," Tony Galeota says. They finally fled the country this past July, leaving Tony alone. We didn't even have to have sex unless we wanted to," says a Colombian stripper named Catherine. When Galeota stood up, he checked his T-shirt for bullet holes, but found none. "I brought in music and women," Galeota says. During the Doll House raid, they found marked bills in the register and several grams of pot on a promoter. "I used to have to patch Tony up all the time," Kristy says. When Galeota arrived in Miami in the summer of 1991, the city was awash in coke, crack, and drug cash. The 43-year-old is shaped like a mini refrigerator: short and squat, with a shaved head and wide-set emerald eyes.