Michael Galeota, who starred on the Disney Channel's "The Jersey" died Sunday, according to Variety. Again, Tony's friends in New York told him where to go. 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. "I lived it up in Miami," he says. Tony Galeota: From Running Porky's, Miami's Most Notorious Strip Joint By the time they returned to Long Island later that night, a pimp was born. "If you like to eat chocolate and you live in a chocolate factory, you're going to eat chocolate," he says. "It is with tremendous heartfelt sadness to announce the passing of Michael James Galeota," Jan. 10, reads a statement on a Go Fund Me page, created by Galeota's family to raise money for his burial. 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. The drugs will be turned over to the DEA. According to Yester, the cartel provided an initial payment of $10 million. The heavy-set Italian even signed a release. These interdiction's were part of Operation Martillo, an international operation to fight illegal trafficking. On Friday, May 17, Galeota got word that the judge had also dismissed the drug charge because of lack of evidence. I had kind of, little by little, put the word out to everybody among the cops, all the law enforcement side as well as among the crooks and said, Gotta meet Tony, gotta meet Tony, gotta meet Tony knowing that he was the only guy who really knew what happened. His mother, Bonnie Gellilti, was "a bit of a. 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. "It was a nightmare in there. But she insists that her husband's imprisonment has brought them closer. Controlling it. Almeida was a specialist in obtaining black-market goods for status-crazed drug dealers. Michael Galeota Obituary (1984 - 2016) - Pontotoc, MS - Pontotoc Progress "This case has had a big impact here," says Jos Otero, a reporter for Panamanian newspaper La Prensa. 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 she launched drunken tirades at Tony after baseball games, no matter how well the all-star shortstop performed. "It was a nightmare in there.". But it bored him. But bloodshed would follow them to Miami. Indeed, court records show that Seidle was a target of the federal wiretapping investigation. He was recently sentenced to serve around six years in federal prison. The most audacious plot allegedly hatched in the back of Porky's was to purchase a former Soviet submarine for $5.5 million for a Colombian drug cartel so it could ship cocaine up the coast to California. They tried to squeeze Fainberg to get Seidle. While Kristy was still in the States, he lived with five of his Colombian prostitutes. On Friday, May 17, Galeota got word that the judge had also dismissed the drug charge because of lack of evidence. "My father wasn't in the mob, but his friends were," Tony says. "But I've always paid for everything, either with stitches in my head, concussions, or jail time. Its a great success overall. 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. Anthony Galeota was born October 17, 1968, on Long Island. But he was too shell-shocked to take up his attorney's offer for a ride to a nice hotel. I got a piece of the action of every blowjob that my friends got," Galeota says. He bought seven properties pretty much sight unseen.". Log In or Sign Up Tonia Galeota See Photos Antonio Galeota See Photos Tony Galeota See Photos Toni Galea See Photos Toni Colletto See Photos Toni Torres Galea local news and culture, Michael E. Miller Between the restaurant and the Doll House, he was making enough to retire in five years. Skip Ancestry main menu Main Menu More than anything, Galeota is grateful that his family kept faith in him. 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. Eventually, he moved two dozen ladies to Panama City. This time, I'm innocent.". His mother, Bonnie Gellilti, was "a bit of a criminal," Tony remembers. This story has been shared 173,716 times. His mother, Bonnie Gellilti, was "a bit of a criminal," Tony remembers. With dark hair and pale, wide-set eyes, teenage Tony resembled a stocky Frank Sinatra. Sign Up. It was a Foxtrot-class submarine, or Project 641 as the Soviets called it. Theyre nice guys [the cartel members], and I didnt ask what they needed the submarine for., If they woke up and were hungry, they would fly a private jet to Cancun for lunch, says Tiller Russell, director of Operation Odessa. Then theyd roll to Venezuela to check out a new casino. He called his cartel contacts and arranged to meet them in the pickup area of the Madrid train station. Like a concert pianist, Tony Galeota has spent his life honing a single skill since he was a teenager. See Photos. Anthony Jr. was taken to a juvenile detention center that wasn't much better. Filmography (by Job) Trailers and Videos. His Doll House dream began at Porky's. So we met with a realtor, got high, and Tony got stupid with money. 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. The two were married in 1994 at a wedding full of mobsters. Photo Gallery. 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. By Sheila Flynn For Dailymail.com But their courtship was cut short. When traffickers balked at the price, Yester reminded them that it could hold 40 tons of cocaine and would pay for itself quickly. When the bartender told Shea it was last call, he became enraged. Yester told the Colombians that theyd have to pay $35 million for the vessel, even though Tarzan had talked the price down to $5.5 million plus just $600 for a crew to pilot it to Colombia. In the distance, La Cordillera de San Blas cuts through the Panamanian jungle like a serrated knife. The year before, his father helped him land a job as a wedding DJ. Greed got the better of him. "My father wasn't in the mob, but his friends were," Tony says. Find your friends on Facebook. Tony and Kristy were shocked and out of a job. Sometimes we get a little excited when we find the amount of cocaine we found, said Castro. 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. 8:00AM. the agent said. Were out there to cause an effect in the drug industry and I believe we made a little dent on it.. Tony Galletta. All he needed now were the prostitutes. 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). 4:00AM. He ogled the women standing on corners in their underwear and high heels. And then Russell got a text message out of the blue. Even then, however, he couldn't sleep. MICHAEL GALEOTA OBITUARY. "This case has had a big impact here," says Jos Otero, a reporter for Panamanian newspaper La Prensa. 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. "It was a very violent atmosphere," he says. When he left to open a bona fide brothel in Panama, Galeota thought the country's lax prostitution laws would make him rich. He was a big, big fish.". A tattoo of an Italian Mafioso emerges from an extra-large sleeveless T-shirt. Born on June 3, 1924 at Hartford. And, above all, selling it. "This case has had a big impact here," says Jos Otero, a reporter for Panamanian newspaper La Prensa. Instead, they eat rice for lunch and dinner, drink dirty river water, and use a hole in the ground for a toilet. Advertisement. Explore More. Controlling it. Girls charged $150 or more for sex. "Maybe we didn't have the permits we were supposed to have, but we're foreigners who didn't understand the rules.". His father, Arnold, was a strait-laced sales manager but a distant and disapproving dad. Back in South Florida, Kristy Galeota vacillates between outrage and empathy for her husband. independent local journalism in Miami. MIAMI BEACH (CBSMiami) The Coast Guard offloaded about $93 million of cocaine Thursday afternoon on Miami Beach. View the profiles of people named Anthony Galeota. "We were like: 'We want to get the fuck out of here. When a dancer clapped her ass cheeks like a maraca, a customer's hands instinctively rose to touch them. Join the New Times community and help support independent Galeota is not exactly repentant. "She hasn't worked for 15 years. A tattoo of an Italian Mafioso emerges from an extra-large sleeveless T-shirt. Make a one-time donation today for as little as $1. source of local news and culture, Michael E. Miller "When you go to prison, it's like dying, but you get to see your own funeral," Galeota says. 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. Facilitating it. The 43-year-old is shaped like a mini refrigerator: short and squat, with a shaved head and wide-set emerald eyes. "Now I'm living in hell.". Its about 2,800 kilos, about a ton and a half of contraband. Galeota's sheer size and mob connections are the only things keeping him from getting shivved in the dark. "She would use shoe polish to change our driver's licenses so we could go to clubs and drink when we were 15. In the meantime, he's spending time with his wife and kids. 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. And, above all, selling it. Santiago de Cali shone in the syrupy South American sunlight filling Colombia's Cauca River Valley. "This country is corrupt. "We were like: 'We want to get the fuck out of here. We had a $500,000 house, cars, and motorcycles. By the time he was 18, he had been arrested seven times for armed robbery and assault, he says. With little oversight, military leaders acted as if they were independent of the government. Instead, he's trapped in a labyrinthine legal system, alone and unable to speak Spanish. and help keep the future of New Times, Use of this website constitutes acceptance of our. Sixteen months later, the two men have yet to appear in court. In the distance, La Cordillera de San Blas cuts through the Panamanian jungle like a serrated knife. But the deal never happened. As the authorities closed in, they picked up Juan and Tarzan, but they couldnt find Tony and neither could the cartel. We didn't even have to have sex unless we wanted to," says a Colombian stripper named Catherine. Im gonna see them in f***ing hell when I arrive there., Russell says the fugitive is probably one of the most fascinating human beings Ive ever been in a room with., He adds: Theres five other films you couldve made about his life and life experiences, and yet he was charming and cultured and funny and also, then, on a dime deadly serious, not somebody that you trifle with. But in South Florida, he was once a strip club king. Photo courtesy of Josh Weiss - Giant insects infest the prison. He was hilarious and charming and garrulous, and it was as if hed stepped right out of a Scorsese movie, Russell says, adding: You know whats the funny thing people dont know about docs? Thats how they eventually uncovered the plot to sell a submarine to the Cali cartel, orchestrated by Tarzan, exotic car importer Juan Almeida and Nelson Tony Yester, a Cuban immigrant believed to be a trained intelligence operative who remains an international fugitive to this day. "Their connections were bigger than ours," he says. When Bill Seidle died, Galeota knew the club's days were numbered. State and local police launched an investigation in February 2009. "They shot him in the middle of the night," Galeota continues quietly, "and buried his body behind the pavilion.". One man stabbed someone over a $10 debt. His father, Arnold, was a strait-laced sales manager but a distant and disapproving dad. Tony Galeota: From Running Porky's, Miami's Most Notorious Strip Joint And she launched drunken tirades at Tony after baseball games, no matter how well the all-star shortstop performed. I told Juan, I said, Hey. When Kristy and their three sons finally arrived in June, the business became a family affair: His wife took over at Bongos, while Galeota concentrated on turning the club into a cash machine. Galeota has seen several murders. 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. But Monday morning, when it came time to walk out of La Joya, there was no vehicle waiting. More at IMDbPro Contact Info: View agent, publicist, legal on IMDbPro. His father, Arnold, was a strait-laced sales manager but a distant and disapproving dad. Operation Odessa (2018) - IMDb This story has been shared 121,048 times. 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. Tony Galeota's shaved head fairly glows with nostalgia as he remembers the days when you might have strolled into his Hialeah bar in search of commercial sex, or maybe to get beaten up or swindled . Galeota was crammed into a sweltering holding cell with 150 others. "My family didn't care; they took it," Galeota says of the stolen goods. ", Instead, he found another, tighter-knit family: the mob. He was a loan shark: generously offering money but punishing those who didn't pay back. local Journalism in South Florida. 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. As the couple drove south on I-95, they thought they were leaving the worst behind them. Tony Galeota has a wife named Kristy Galeota, with whom he lives. He paid for her to secretly get an abortion. ", 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. "They would describe what they looked like," Galeota says. The gig introduced him to a lifelong vice. Miami's underworld may still be seedy, but it has outsourced much of its shadiness to nearby Third-World countries such as Panama. "Now I'm living in hell.". "They murdered a guy in here a couple of days ago," Tony Galeota says. "I'm used to getting my water from a rain bucket, not hot from the tap." When his dad lost his job, Tony paid the bills. 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. 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. #Torture #PanamGovernment #LaJoyaprisonPanam #PresidentVarela #Panam #Corruption. He ogled the women standing on corners in their underwear and high heels. And like the Italian-American crooner, he loved women a little too much. See also: "From Porky's to Panamanian Prison: Web Extra.". Miami's independent source of Join the New Times community and help support Galeota is no angelic Andy Dufresne, the main character in Shawshank who serves two decades behind bars for a crime he didn't commit. How 'Tarzan' and a Cuban duo 'got in deep' with a cocaine cartel