The inside story of a gang known as “the Russians” who transformed Ireland’s heroin trade by forcing trafficked Lithuanians to push drugs.
When a friend told Robertas he could get work as a security guard in Ireland, he jumped at the chance. It wasn’t just an opportunity to earn more than he could in his homeland, Lithuania; it was a chance to leave behind a messy personal chapter plagued by alcoholism.
Robertas’ new employers were very accommodating, hiring a private bus to take him and other new hires from Lithuania to Dublin. He was told not to worry about the paperwork — someone else would fill out all the forms, ensuring that everything was legitimate.
In Dublin, Robertas was taken to meet a Lithuanian man who confiscated his passport and said he would now need to head south to the city of Cork, where he would be working. Drunk, and with no English, Robertas hopped on a bus and hoped for the best.
In Cork, things only got worse. Robertas was taken to the squalid basement where he would be living, then was told to accompany his new supervisor as he met with people on the street. Robertas soon realized what his new job really was: selling heroin.
“No one explained anything,” said Robertas, whose name has been changed for his safety. “I understood that something was off … that something illegal was being sold.”
Robertas is among scores of Lithuanians who were trafficked into slavery working for a major Irish drug gang known as “the Russians.” For almost a decade before 2020, the Lithuanian-run organized crime group enticed people to Ireland with the promise of good jobs, then used violence to force them to sell heroin and crack on the streets.
Comments