"Then they'd tell me: 'They are as good as dead.'". Moreover, trafficking prostitutes and drugs and involvement in organized crime are some serious charges.". It is not known when he was born or his current age. The heavy-set Italian even signed a release. 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. Panamanian newspapers put "Operation Fiesta" on the front page as prosecutors alleged Galeota was part of an international crime ring. Galeota is no angelic Andy Dufresne, the main character in Shawshank who serves two decades behind bars for a crime he didn't commit. CAKEGATE 2023: Bad Bunny's Restaurant Accused of Gobbling Birthday Girl's Cake, Neighborhood Nazi Jon Minadeo Peddles Hate by the Minute, Gator Gets in on the Action at Tampa Bay Horse Race, 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. Become a member to support the independent voice of South Florida But he was too shell-shocked to take up his attorney's offer for a ride to a nice hotel. They put a hit out on him when he disappeared with the money, while Juan and Tarzan took the legal fall in Miami. Tony Galeota. Although he knows he could receive the death penalty, the money is too tempting to resist. You could not mislead him in any way or you could tell that the consequences could be serious, but I loved him. 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. But when the house of cards tumbles, John . 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. But his mind was on another kind of riches. And she launched drunken tirades at Tony after baseball games, no matter how well the all-star shortstop performed. Prostitution is legal in Panama," he complains. 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). Through the air plane window, Tony Galeota could see the city's colonial churches glow like polished gold. Galeota is no angelic Andy Dufresne, the main character in Shawshank who serves two decades behind bars for a crime he didn't commit. "The first month, we had $15,000 in gross sales. 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 paid for her to secretly get an abortion. 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. But then the country's corrupt system turned on them. But in South Florida, he was once a strip club king. "It is with tremendous heartfelt sadness to announce the passing of Michael James Gal The crew boarded the 165-foot Panamanian-flagged coastal freighter Hope II. They arrested 18 suspects, including Galeota, several strippers, and most employees. "My father wasn't in the mob, but his friends were," Tony says. Murdaugh is heckled as he leaves court, Moment teenager crashes into back of lorry after 100mph police race, Ken Bruce finishes his 30-year tenure as host of BBC Radio 2, Family of a 10-month-old baby filmed vaping open up, Missing hiker buried under snow forces arm out to wave to helicopter, Insane moment river of rocks falls onto Malibu Canyon in CA, Fleet-footed cop chases an offender riding a scooter, Ukrainian soldier takes out five tanks with Javelin missiles. Galeota may not be a good man, but he is brutally honest. "If you like to eat chocolate and you live in a chocolate factory, you're going to eat chocolate," he says. Instead of celebrating, he walked through the scuzzy neighborhood until he found a shabby motel. His mother, Bonnie Gellilti, was "a bit of a criminal," Tony remembers. "It was a real moneymaker. Thousands of teachers walk out demanding pay, funding incr Canadian teacher with size-Z prosthetic breasts placed on paid leave, What's next for Buster Murdaugh after dad's murder conviction, life sentence, US home prices just did something they haven't done since 2012, Rebel Wilson says Meghan Markle isnt as naturally warm as Prince Harry, Kristen Doute supports Ariana Madix amid mutual ex Tom Sandovals scandal, Celeb-loved jewelry brand Dorsey drops dazzling new styles, Undertaker transforms coffin into barbecue grill, Tom Sizemore And The Dangerous Burden of Desperation, Tom Sandoval breaks silence on Ariana Madix split amid cheating claims. Panama had gone from paradise to purgatory. Now the locals want to get rid of guys like Galeota too, as his case has drawn national attention to corruption and human rights abuses. "The worst part of being in here is being in here for nothing. Awards. There was nothing unusual about it. June 4, 2013 Then once he sent me this crazy email like, Holy s***! 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 decked out the Doll House with five upstairs rooms equipped with king-size beds, mirrors, lube, condoms, and showers, and brought in dozens of Colombian women, who could earn $120 split with the club for an hour of sex. He escaped with his life and went on the run, aiming to avoid the cartel, Interpol and US law enforcers. The value then triples to $100,000 per kilo at the street level when it's busted down for individual use. We have a lot of laughs about it now," he says. 17:57 GMT 13 Mar 2018. Galeota and his "girls" in the Doll House, before the bust. A tattoo of an Italian Mafioso emerges from an extra-large sleeveless T-shirt. Tony Galeota Tony Galeota. I just called a friend who had a friend and asked if he could get us a sub. Galeota's sheer size and mob connections are the only things keeping him from getting shivved in the dark. We've been here for two years!' He paid for her to secretly get an abortion. His Doll House dream began at Porky's. Episode 5: Spain /Sold My Soul When Galeota arrived in Miami in the summer of 1991, the city was awash in coke, crack, and drug cash. Toni Galeota Profiles | Facebook Because of his age, he escaped with six months' probation. 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. When he was 16, he knocked up his 15-year-old girlfriend at Hauppauge High School. Anthony Jr. was taken to a juvenile detention center that wasn't much better. "There was no transportation, no cops, no nothing," he says. S10 E10 Miami Mobster Take Down. "They had what seemed like a dynamite case, but it has ended up in pieces.". Juan felt like he had no choice, says Russell. Guards with machine guns man rusty metal towers. And theyre like, F*** yeah, lets do it. But he insists that, for once, he has done nothing wrong. On Friday, May 17, Galeota got word that the judge had also dismissed the drug charge because of lack of evidence. October 4, 2012 "We were like: 'We want to get the fuck out of here. In this real life Goodfellas tale, New York teen John Alite gets a job at his local Deli, a hangout for 'wise guys'. "Many times, I worried about him getting killed. See Photos. They are willing to assume the massive risk of getting caught and going to prison for decades, because if they make just one big score they're millionaires. He was 31. A poster on the wall advertises "Lesby Show: 2 Girls per Person" for $350. We've been here for two years!' 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. According to Yester, the cartel provided an initial payment of $10 million. But in South Florida, he was once a strip club king. "He never forced us to do anything. Galeota is no angelic Andy Dufresne, the main character in Shawshank who serves two decades behind bars for a crime he didn't commit. Tony Galeto. By the time he was 18, he had been arrested seven times for armed robbery and assault, he says. "I lived it up in Miami," he says. And she launched drunken tirades at Tony after baseball games, no matter how well the all-star shortstop performed. Galeota tried going straight, opening a coffee shop in downtown Panama City. "There was no transportation, no cops, no nothing," he says. His mother, Bonnie Gellilti, was "a bit of a criminal," Tony remembers. The year before, his father helped him land a job as a wedding DJ. It was this sort of legendary underworld myth, almost, that people had been talking about for, you know, 20 years., He tells DailyMail.com: In Moscow, I got a text from Tony that said, Youve talked to the waiters; you should come meet the chef. Behind him, 12-foot-high fences topped with spools of barbed wire frame a muddy soccer field. Joseph GALEOTA Obituary (2011) - Willimantic, CT - Hartford Courant "My father wasn't in the mob, but his friends were," Tony says. Follow Miami New Times on Facebook and Twitter @MiamiNewTimes. 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.. This time, I'm innocent.". 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. "She hasn't worked for 15 years. Theres this crazy Russian gangster who sold a submarine to the Cali drug cartel; his name is Tarzan and hes locked in a Panamanian prison and he had a Blackberry And he said, Do you want his number?, And I said, Hell, yes! Tarzan, got his first job in America as an enforcer for the Gambino crime family. We travelled all the time. "But I did it for my child.". Half an hour later, Galeota was guarding the door when a car rolled up with the window down. "Miami is a place where I would love to live," he pronounced, "and where I would love to die." He left, but returned with a gun. But Tony had darker secrets. Log In. But he insists that, for once, he has done nothing wrong. It was 1990, and Galeota transformed the place by wiring in subwoofers and bringing in New York dancers. 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). or. Both Juan and Tarzan shared with Russell how they had graduated from buying helicopters, motorcycles and cars for the cartel from Russia to pursuing a submarine for the drugrunners. "I don't care how strong you are; that's going to affect your marriage," she says. Research > Galeota > Tony Galeota. 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. Tony was a tough, muscular little shit back then. Police repeatedly raided the club, yet Galeota escaped unscathed every time. Gunshots flashed like fireworks in the darkness. And like the Italian-American crooner, he loved women a little too much. 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's forgiven me, for the most part. Now the locals want to get rid of guys like Galeota too, as his case has drawn national attention to corruption and human rights abuses. "They murdered a guy in here a couple of days ago," Tony Galeota says. 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. Within weeks of its April 2011 opening, the club was raking in $6,000 on good nights. Rising swiftly through the ranks, John buries his conscience to become a notorious Mafia hitman. Facebook gives people the power. And twice they had given up. Kristy was a self-described "firecracker" who had also escaped from an abusive home and wanted attention. State and local police launched an investigation in February 2009. The two ran Porky's for another decade after Fainberg's deportation. or. It wasn't until he ordered some Italian food and a cold Guinness that he finally felt like he was free. Behind him, 12-foot-high fences topped with spools of barbed wire frame a muddy soccer field. "I've done a lot of shady things in the States," he admits. Galeota says the police had already gotten what they wanted: Porky's demise. The Coast Guard said each one of the kilos is worth $33,000. ", 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. But he was too shell-shocked to take up his attorney's offer for a ride to a nice hotel. Watch Locked Up Abroad TV Show - Streaming Online | Nat Geo TV "It was a very violent atmosphere," he says. Indeed, Havana Club has already reopened. "But I've always paid for everything, either with stitches in my head, concussions, or jail time. All he needed now were the prostitutes. "But I've always paid for everything, either with stitches in my head, concussions, or jail time. He didn't stay long. "This country is corrupt. "Everybody give me your money!" When he left to open a bona fide brothel in Panama, Galeota thought the country's lax prostitution laws would make him rich. Biography. We have a lot of laughs about it now," he says. Find your friends on Facebook. "Last week we were supposed to have a hearing, but there was no running water in Panama City. "You see who wants to fuck your wife, who wants to rob you, and who your real friends are.". But their courtship was cut short. His father, Arnold, was a strait-laced sales manager but a distant and disapproving dad. In the distance, La Cordillera de San Blas cuts through the Panamanian jungle like a serrated knife. Sheila Flynn For Dailymail.com
He was soon promoted from DJing weddings to robbing delivery trucks for the Paccione clan (which federal court records tie to the infamous Gambino crime family). By
"I was 16 years old and amazed," he says. "Thank God I'm out," he tells New Times in his first interview since his release. The 43-year-old is shaped like a mini refrigerator: short and squat, with a shaved head and wide-set emerald eyes. Tony Galletta. When youre rolling with the criminal underworld, its always weird; its really weird in Russia.. See Photos. The smugglers boat was destroyed because it was a hazard to navigation. 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. Watch Locked Up Abroad Season 10 Episode 10 Miami Mobster Take Down Online Galeota yelled. Sixteen months later, the two men have yet to appear in court. 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. Galeota's sheer size and mob connections are the only things keeping him from getting shivved in the dark. The bartender hid in the bathroom and dialed 911. 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?. Behind him, 12-foot-high fences topped with spools of barbed wire frame a muddy soccer field. I'm kind of stuck with it. 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. So the translator said she couldn't take a shower, didn't show up, and the case was delayed. In the distance, La Cordillera de San Blas cuts through the Panamanian jungle like a serrated knife. Explore More. ", McDonald has succeeded, however, in chipping away at the case, persuading a judge three weeks ago to drop the trafficking charge on a technicality. Can he prove his innocence and escape? He sold the shop and in 2010 opened Bongos, a restaurant serving wings and beer. "Running a club in that neighborhood, win or lose, you've got to fight.". Nobody was impressed more than Kristy Sharpe, an 18-year-old waitress from Orlando with blond hair, blue eyes, and lightly freckled skin. "My father wasn't in the mob, but his friends were," Tony says. "Thank God I'm out," he tells New Times in his first interview since his release. Galeota is not exactly repentant. "Whenever there is an American businessman involved in crime here in Panama, it becomes an important case. And like the Italian-American crooner, he loved women a little too much. The club was very successful. "I'm used to getting my water from a rain bucket, not hot from the tap." While out of sight, he phoned his guy and lied about being in a particular taxi cab. By the mid-'90s, Galeota had turned Porky's into a one-stop shop for strippers, sex, and serious drugs. But she insists that her husband's imprisonment has brought them closer. "They knew some Russian guy named Tarzan who had just opened up a club in Miami called Porky's. Tony went on the run with the money the drug cartel provided up front, however, as authorities closed in - meaning the deal never happened, Tarzan got deported, Juan was (temporarily) convicted on drug charges and Tony became a fugitive not just from justice but from the hit that was put out on his head. Here, Galeota is just one of 500 prisoners crammed into a filthy cell block designed to hold 200 people. Controlling it. They also discovered the club was registered as a massage parlor, not a brothel.
Born on June 3, 1924 at Hartford. This looks great. . "He had that guido effect on me," she says. The gig introduced him to a lifelong vice. "They would describe what they looked like," Galeota says. Galeota has seen several murders. Wrongly imprisoned. Inmates are fed bread and cheese for breakfast and rice (sometimes beans) for lunch and dinner. But instead of classical music, his specialty is sex. But Tony had darker secrets. 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. Greed got the better of him. 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. View Tony Galeota's 1940 US census record to find family members, occupation details & more. There was a spate of murders, several police raids, and a federal drug-trafficking trial. 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. Operation Odessa - From the Heart Productions Inc A dozen plainclothes cops poured in with pistols drawn. In the meantime, he's spending time with his wife and kids. 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. But Monday morning, when it came time to walk out of La Joya, there was no vehicle waiting. Catherine says she slept with customers because she needed the money to support her family. "It was a nightmare in there.". Prosecutors say police never filed the necessary paperwork. The two were married in 1994 at a wedding full of mobsters. Galeota is one of several Americans locked up here. Most of them were robberies gone wrong or simple revenge. Galeota's sheer size and mob connections are the only things keeping him from getting shivved in the dark. . Become a member to support the independent voice of South Florida "Now I'm living in hell.". It was February 2011, and he was preparing to open the Doll House, his own strip club in Panama. Russian immigrant Ludwig Fainberg, a.k.a. "I'm used to getting my water from a rain bucket, not hot from the tap." Once they spotted the plane, they changed course which is suspicious for us, said Boatswains Mate 1st Class, Joshua McElhaney with the Coast Guard. Log in or sign up for Facebook to connect with friends, family and people you know. MICHAEL GALEOTA OBITUARY. South Florida's independent The Marin Post But he insists that, for once, he has done nothing wrong. It continued at another local strip club, called Quarterbacks Playmates Lounge. Galeota also found himself in the back of an unmarked FBI car. But it bored him. #Torture #PanamGovernment #LaJoyaprisonPanam #PresidentVarela #Panam #Corruption.