Galeota was hit with felony drug and prostitution charges. Instead, he's trapped in a labyrinthine legal system, alone and unable to speak Spanish. By the mid-'90s, Galeota had turned Porky's into a one-stop shop for strippers, sex, and serious drugs. Galeota is one of several Americans locked up here. We've been here for two years!' "We just meshed," she says. (CBS Miami). A tattoo of an Italian Mafioso emerges from an extra-large sleeveless T-shirt. Even then, however, he couldn't sleep. The fear was well founded, considering what went down when Tarzan linked up with Cuban outlaws Juan Almeida and Nelson Tony Yester. 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. "My wife is never going to completely trust me. "But I've always paid for everything, either with stitches in my head, concussions, or jail time. The American says he's giving up the strip club and brothel businesses. A judge eventually dropped the human trafficking charge, but Galeota still rotted in his sordid cell alongside insects the size of small dogs. ", Coast Guard Offloads More Than $93 Million In Cocaine, Miami Beach. Facilitating it. "I'm in survival mode now," Galeota says, adding that he agonizes over being imprisoned for what he believes are unjust charges. 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. This looks great. . Sixteen months later, the two men have yet to appear in court. But bloodshed would follow them to Miami. Galeota has seen several murders. When Galeota stood up, he checked his T-shirt for bullet holes, but found none. Research > Galeota > Tony Galeota. Panamanian newspapers put "Operation Fiesta" on the front page as prosecutors alleged Galeota was part of an international crime ring. "I wouldn't leave a dog in that prison, let alone my husband.". Galeota also found himself in the back of an unmarked FBI car. Prosecutors say police never filed the necessary paperwork. One scammer stole from another scammer; of course I accept it, he says. "Like me, he was a black sheep who could do nothing right.". More at IMDbPro Contact Info: View agent, publicist, legal on IMDbPro. "It is with tremendous heartfelt sadness to announce the passing of Michael James Gal "When you're in La Joya for two years, you get used to that environment," Galeota says. "But I did it for my child.". He met with mobsters in Cali mansions full of women, and he knocked on random doors in search of dancers. Tony Galeota: From Running Porky's, Miami's Most Notorious Strip Joint local Journalism in South Florida. I got a piece of the action of every blowjob that my friends got," Galeota says. Find your friends on Facebook. 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 Galeota has a wife named Kristy Galeota, with whom he lives. While another new prisoner was beaten and robbed, Galeota was untouched. If only there were a place where prostitution was legal, he thought, a city full of beautiful women like Miami, but no rules. 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. Most of them were robberies gone wrong or simple revenge. Guards with machine guns man rusty metal towers. He ogled the women standing on corners in their underwear and high heels. Log In. While out of sight, he phoned his guy and lied about being in a particular taxi cab. 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. On Friday, May 17, Galeota got word that the judge had also dismissed the drug charge because of lack of evidence. But the Doll House and Moulin Rouge remain closed. "I want to go legit when I get out, but if the economy is bad, I might go back to the industry," he says. 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. The crew boarded the 165-foot Panamanian-flagged coastal freighter Hope II. "My family didn't care; they took it," Galeota says of the stolen goods. 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. Galeota is no angelic Andy Dufresne, the main character in Shawshank who serves two decades behind bars for a crime he didn't commit. He left, but returned with a gun. Michael Galeota, who starred on the Disney Channel's "The Jersey" died Sunday, according to Variety. The offload is a result of two successful drug interdictions in the Caribbean since August 23. Greed got the better of him. Follow Miami New Times on Facebook and Twitter @MiamiNewTimes. Then they pushed play on a cassette deck. "I lived it up in Miami," he says. "They murdered a guy in here a couple of days ago," Tony Galeota says. When he was 16, he knocked up his 15-year-old girlfriend at Hauppauge High School. Watch Locked Up Abroad Season 10 Episode 10 Miami Mobster Take Down Online Make a one-time donation today for as little as $1. We both understand that.". Photo courtesy of Josh Weiss Surrounded by Colombian strippers, Galeota gives a toast during a party at the Doll House. They'd use their connections with immigration officials to obtain visas and prostitution licenses and then give Tarzan and Tony 40 percent of the profits to run a new club, called the Doll House. The club was very successful. The eight crew members aboard the Hope II and the vessel were taken into custody and will be turned over to U.S. officials for further investigation. But instead of classical music, his specialty is sex. We've been here for two years!' The heavy-set Italian even signed a release. "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. Born on June 3, 1924 at Hartford. Of the $10 million, he said, I cannot f- -king believe it how fast I spend it.. 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. He broke it off with the woman, but his problems were only beginning. The Doll House couldn't expand fast enough to meet the influx of sex tourists. Galeota saw an opportunity. Its about 2,800 kilos, about a ton and a half of contraband. Tarzan was released from the Panamanian prison in around 2016 and has since built a side career out of playing tough guys in gangster flicks shot in Russia, where he now lives. ", 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. Indeed, Tony would turn Porky's into a moneymaking machine. Finally, on May 23, the gate on Galeota's cramped cell swung open, and he was free to go. Business was better, but it still wouldn't make him rich. The Coast Guard said the eight-member crew cooperated and was taken into custody. Prostitution in Miami had become too risky, he decided, but overseas sex tourism was soaring. 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. It was a Foxtrot-class submarine, or Project 641 as the Soviets called it. Back in South Florida, Kristy Galeota vacillates between outrage and empathy for her husband. Galeota's enemies say that a life of sin has finally caught up with the flesh-peddler. (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. But he insists that, for once, he has done nothing wrong. In an instant, Galeota's meaty hand was around the customer's neck, shoving him outside. 8:00AM. Explore More. 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. 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. Yester, a highly regarded affiliate of multiple cocaine cartels, opened European markets for Colombian narco-terrorist Pablo Escobar and went on the run in 1990 after being charged with cocaine trafficking. But in South Florida, he was once a strip club king. And she launched drunken tirades at Tony after baseball games, no matter how well the all-star shortstop performed. Over the years, Galeota saw nearly a dozen shootings at Porky's, some of them fatal. Police repeatedly raided the club, yet Galeota escaped unscathed every time. ", 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. His school friends didn't believe him, so a few days later he sneaked out, stole his mom's minivan, and drove around the neighborhood loading up with other teens. And so it was extraordinary, where sort of person after person was this larger-than-life character, from Fat Tony the bartender to Tony Yester the spy-turned-dope-dealer-turned-fugitive. Inside the prison, the sign is a running joke. When he heard that his old partner in crime from Porky's had moved to Panama, he flew in to meet with 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.
