"These guys were into just about everything," Assistant U.S. Attorney Diana Fernandez said at the time. 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. In the distance, La Cordillera de San Blas cuts through the Panamanian jungle like a serrated knife. Family members can also bring them food and clean water, however, and inmates bribe guards to smuggle in additional items. 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. Sign Up. Then they pushed play on a cassette deck. This time, I'm innocent.". Photo Gallery. "If you like to eat chocolate and you live in a chocolate factory, you're going to eat chocolate," he says. When his younger brother was molested, he beat the suspected perpetrator to a pulp. 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. Find your friends on Facebook. I told Juan, I said, Hey. They were all together when Tony worked for the Russin mobsters in Porky's club as its manager. Michael Galeota Obituary (1984 - 2016) - Legacy Between the restaurant and the Doll House, he was making enough to retire in five years. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. 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. By the time they returned to Long Island later that night, a pimp was born. Next time, I will steal it back from him., Tarzan (left) at the site of the submarine. Tony Galeota: From Running Porky's, Miami's Most Notorious Strip Joint 4:00AM. After that, Kristy closed Bongos. I just called a friend who had a friend and asked if he could get us a sub. But the men kept in touch as Russell pursued other projects, with Tarzan sending random messages such as Christmas greetings until he finally sent the email the filmmaker had been awaiting (although he couldnt have guessed the other crazy details in the communication. Documentary Drama When Miami mobster Tony Galeota opens a club in Panama City, the competition frames him for drug dealing and human trafficking. A friend suggested Panama. The gig introduced him to a lifelong vice. Marshals deported Ludwig Fainberg from Miami. His mother, Bonnie Gellilti, was "a bit of a. "I'm in survival mode now," Galeota says, adding that he agonizes over being imprisoned for what he believes are unjust charges. Years later, Tarzan again found himself behind bars, this time in Panama; in fact, he was serving time in 2011 when Russell first approached him for the documentary. Tony Galletta. 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. But Tony had darker secrets. Police repeatedly raided the club, yet Galeota escaped unscathed every time. "It was puppy love," he says. People named Tony Goleta. He was very serious and said he would look into it. The club was very successful. While another new prisoner was beaten and robbed, Galeota was untouched. Tony Galeota lived in 1954, at address, Massachusetts. Indeed, Tony would turn Porky's into a moneymaking machine. 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. Prostitution was so common at Porky's that the club had fixed places and prices, Galeota says. ", - 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. Reborn behind bars. Because of his age, he escaped with six months' probation. , updated local Journalism in South Florida. "It was a nightmare in there. Even then, however, he couldn't sleep. "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. 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And like the Italian-American crooner, he loved women a little too much. Running an underworld operation in Cocaine Cowboys-era Miami wasn't an easy gig. 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. 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. Galeota's sheer size and mob connections are the only things keeping him from getting shivved in the dark. He paid for her to secretly get an abortion. And theyre like, F*** yeah, lets do it. We did outsmart the FBI, we did outsmart the DEA, we even did outsmart the court, Tarzan says in the film. Business was better, but it still wouldn't make him rich. "I don't care how strong you are; that's going to affect your marriage," she says. The year before, his father helped him land a job as a wedding DJ. 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. Facilitating it. Make a one-time donation today for as little as $1. She's forgiven me, for the most part. Coast Guard members who seized the cocaine said this is what their jobs are all about. "But I've always paid for everything, either with stitches in my head, concussions, or jail time. Tony Galeota Profiles | Facebook For the most part, Doll House dancers agree. This time, I'm innocent.". I flew to a little island near St. Petersburg, met with a retired Russian admiral, and he took me to the navy base, says Tarzan. 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. Girls charged $150 or more for sex. Instead of celebrating, he walked through the scuzzy neighborhood until he found a shabby motel. When his dad lost his job, Tony paid the bills. The 43-year-old is shaped like a mini refrigerator: short and squat, with a shaved head and wide-set emerald eyes. 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 person they were going to pay for the submarine was the officer who let them [into the naval base], says Russell. Tony Galeto. "They murdered a guy in here a couple of days ago," Tony Galeota says. 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?. He created a souped-up cigarette boat that went for $2 million and was presumably used to transport cocaine. 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. Tony Galeota Age And Family. Tony and Kristy were shocked and out of a job. Join the New Times community and help support 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. 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. Even though Yester may have suspected that the cartel was after him, he couldnt help but try to get his hands on the remaining $25 million. 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. Instead, they eat rice for lunch and dinner, drink dirty river water, and use a hole in the ground for a toilet. ", "You hear that?" Instead, they eat rice for lunch and dinner, drink dirty river water, and use a hole in the ground for a toilet. 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. or. The gig introduced him to a lifelong vice. As he contemplates the question, Galeota watches his fellow inmates kick a soccer ball across La Joya's putrid playground. 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. And multiple sources close to Fainberg say he was pressured to rat out Seidle but refused. Anywhere other than La Joya, this news would be shocking. He called his cartel contacts and arranged to meet them in the pickup area of the Madrid train station. Miami's underworld may still be seedy, but it has outsourced much of its shadiness to nearby Third-World countries such as Panama. Like a concert pianist, Tony Galeota has spent his life honing a single skill since he was a teenager. Sixteen months later, the two men have yet to appear in court. People named Toni Galeota Find your friends on Facebook Log in or sign up for Facebook to connect with friends, family and people you know. TV-14 | 06.05.2013. A tattoo of an Italian Mafioso emerges from an extra-large sleeveless T-shirt. They were very compliant to everything we asked of them, said McElhaney. Miami's underworld may still be seedy, but it has outsourced much of its shadiness to nearby Third-World countries such as Panama. From Porky's to Panama Prison, Tony Galeota Reveals Miami's Mob-Run Anthony Galeota was born October 17, 1968, on Long Island. Filthy and crowded cell block of La Joya Prison, Panama. The 43-year-old is shaped like a mini refrigerator: short and squat, with a shaved head and wide-set emerald eyes. "Like me, he was a black sheep who could do nothing right.". "I lived it up in Miami," he says. Over the years, Galeota saw nearly a dozen shootings at Porky's, some of them fatal. His father, Arnold, was a strait-laced sales manager but a distant and disapproving dad. "The investigation was so poorly handled and rushed," says Otero, the journalist. Log In. She is cute and curvy with dark hair and a button nose. In the meantime, he's spending time with his wife and kids. 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. See Photos. Galeota yelled. Kristy caught Tony cheating several times, she says. 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. When he left to open a bona fide brothel in Panama, Galeota thought the country's lax prostitution laws would make him rich. The charismatic teenager sold the stolen suits or electronics at strip clubs or used-car lots. And, above all, selling it. But he was too shell-shocked to take up his attorney's offer for a ride to a nice hotel. "Bill was one of the most influential people in Miami," Galeota says. 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. October 4, 2012 Tarzan and Tony went so far as to gain access to a Soviet naval base and be taken on a tour of a submarine potentially for sale, even cajoling Russian military officials to pose for photos - which they used to prove to the Colombians that a deal could be brokered (and which are shown in the film). And he hopes to open a place in Fort Lauderdale when he's back. View Tony Galeota's 1940 US census record to find family members, occupation details & more. Log in or sign up for Facebook to connect with friends, family and people you know. "Anthony has been in jail for more than 15 months, and a judge hasn't even heard his case yet!" (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. 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.". (CBS Miami). Indeed, court records show that Seidle was a target of the federal wiretapping investigation. "I couldn't take all the people who wanted to come.". But in South Florida, he was once a strip club king. We didn't even have to have sex unless we wanted to," says a Colombian stripper named Catherine. 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 They put a hit out on him when he disappeared with the money, while Juan and Tarzan took the legal fall in Miami. In the distance, La Cordillera de San Blas cuts through the Panamanian jungle like a serrated knife. #Torture #PanamGovernment #LaJoyaprisonPanam #PresidentVarela #Panam #Corruption. But his mind was on another kind of riches. He was a loan shark: generously offering money but punishing those who didn't pay back. On Friday, May 17, Galeota got word that the judge had also dismissed the drug charge because of lack of evidence. Galeota jumped at the deal. "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. But Fainberg wasn't in town to catch up. But the story of how the documentary got made is nearly as crazy as the caper plot itself. The last one locked the door. 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. He sold the shop and in 2010 opened Bongos, a restaurant serving wings and beer. "They shot him in the middle of the night," Galeota continues quietly, "and buried his body behind the pavilion.". Galeota's enemies say that a life of sin has finally caught up with the flesh-peddler. 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. "Then they'd tell me: 'They are as good as dead.'". A judge eventually dropped the human trafficking charge, but Galeota still rotted in his sordid cell alongside insects the size of small dogs. While Kristy was still in the States, he lived with five of his Colombian prostitutes. A dozen plainclothes cops poured in with pistols drawn. Like a real-life godfather, Galeota weathered it all. A kilo of cocaine in Panama costs much less - about $5,000 per. He was 31. But he insists that, for once, he has done nothing wrong. It was February 2011, and he was preparing to open the Doll House, his own strip club in Panama. Galeota is one of several Americans locked up here. Galeota is one of several Americans locked up here. Kristy was able to pay a lawyer $500 to get her son released, but there was no bond for Galeota's drug offense. In January 1997, after he dropped his daughter off at school, Tarzan was arrested and hit with a 30-count federal indictment. Prisoners eat stale bread and a slice of cheese for breakfast; rice and sometimes beans is their lunch and dinner. "There were beautiful girls, just walking the streets, giving blowjobs for $10 or $15.". We've been here for two years!' During a visit last month, a New Times reporter witnessed one police official receive a $20 bill in a barely disguised handshake. 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. 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. He was the one whod been speaking directly to the cartel; he was the only one who knew the real amount of money Cali were willing to pay; and he was the one who took the risk and disappeared with millions of the cartels drug money. Russian immigrant Ludwig Fainberg, a.k.a. As for his career, his only oath is that he won't let his sons follow his example. 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.
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