Leonid "Tarzan" Fainberg also known as Ludwig Lyosha Fainberg (born January 3, 1958) is a Ukrainian
mobster
A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from ''mob'' and the suffix '' -ster''. Gangs provide a level of organization and ...
. Born in
Odesa
Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrative ...
, Fainberg left the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
in the early 1980s for Israel, and moved to the United States following the fall of the Soviet Union. In the mid-1990s, Fainberg attempted to purchase a Soviet
diesel submarine for use in
drug smuggling
The illegal drug trade or drug trafficking is a global black market dedicated to the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of drug prohibition, prohibited drugs. Most jurisdictions prohibitionism, prohibit trade, except under license, ...
for a
Colombian cocaine
The illegal drug trade in Colombia has, since the 1970s, centered successively on four major drug trafficking cartels: Medellín, Cali, Norte del Valle, and North Coast, as well as several ''bandas criminales'', or BACRIMs. The trade eventuall ...
cartel
A cartel is a group of independent market participants who collude with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the market. Cartels are usually associations in the same sphere of business, and thus an alliance of rivals. Mos ...
. Fainberg lived in
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
between 1990 and 1997 and owned a topless bar called Porky's, named for the movie. He was arrested and convicted of smuggling and
racketeering
Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercive, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit.
Originally and of ...
and spent thirty months in jail before his trial, and was convicted.
he was in
Panama
Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...
, jailed and awaiting trial for
pimping
Procuring or pandering is the facilitation or provision of a prostitute or other sex worker in the arrangement of a sex act with a customer. A procurer, colloquially called a pimp (if male) or a madam (if female, though the term pimp has still ...
.
After being released by a judge from
La Joyita Prison in Panama, the prosecutor appealed the release and wanted to retry the case. Authorities were going to re-arrest Tarzan and his accomplice
Tony Galeota. The two fled Panama into Costa Rica via boat and hid out until they could get their passports stamped which would allow them to leave Costa Rica. (Their story is detailed in the National Geographic series “Locked up Abroad” Season 10 Episode 10
Miami Mobster Take Down. Tarzan eventually fled to Cuba and returned to Moscow. He is featured in the Documentary
Operation Odessa. The story of how three hustlers schemed to sell a Soviet submarine to a Colombian drug cartel for $35 million.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fainberg, Ludwig
1958 births
People from Odesa
Jewish American gangsters
Soviet emigrants to Israel
Ukrainian gangsters
Arms traders
Living people
21st-century American Jews
Drug traffickers