It’s not just Albanian organised crime trafficking slaves to the U.K. This is from Northern Ireland. The promises are often just honest work for honest pay, it’s not promises of riches. So the men being tricked into being trafficked are not being greedy or trying to get rich quick.
“A man has revealed how he was trafficked to Northern Ireland by an international crime gang as a slave, forcibly injected with heroin and forced to sell it on the streets of Belfast.
He was beaten and ordered to sell the deadly drug around the streets of Ulster for 12 hours every day by his Lithuanian gang bosses - and he names notorious gang leader Gintas Vengalis as the thug who enslaved him though he says some Northern Irish people were also involved.”
”Among the 18 people arrested was a Lithuanian businessman in his 30s, Kestutis Klemauskas, the alleged boss of the entire Russians gang, which used job offers to trick scores of unemployed Lithuanians into travelling to Ireland for paid work, only to be coerced into becoming full-time heroin and crack-dealing slaves.”
”One of those vulnerable Lithuanians spoke to the investigative reporters using the fake name 'Lukas'.
And the details of his life in Belfast are deeply disturbing.
He says he was living in poverty in Lithuania and offered work abroad. When he arrived in Dublin, the gang took his documents and shipped him to a different city, where he sold heroin on the streets under duress.
"They told me that there is a well-paid job in construction, but that it was in Ireland, and if I have the documents, if I want to make money, I can go to Ireland with him the next day," he said.
"I agreed because I wanted to work. I was told that I had to give my details, and better yet, an ID card, because his friends had to buy me plane tickets for which they would pay, and I would later refund them in instalments."
”Upon arrival in Belfast, Lukas was brought to a large house with at least three floors. Tired from travelling, he ate and retired to his room, where he went to sleep.
Soon he woke up to the sounds of a man screaming in agony in another room, begging for his life, as other men beat him to near death with what sounded like blunt instruments.
"There were muffled pounding sounds - I was really scared because it all happened suddenly and unexpectedly," he says.
"Then everything fell silent. I can't remember all the small details now, but I was told that I was indebted for the trip from Lithuania, and until I repaid the debt, I would have to live here and pay off my debt by selling their product.
"When I said I wouldn't sell [drugs], and that I was better working in construction, I was told I could only build a tombstone for myself, and if I made trouble I would end up under the ground."
”Lukas now understood why the gang's recruiter had been so interested in whether he had relatives or friends in Lithuania. They wanted to know if anyone would come looking if he went missing.
"I was locked in a room and when I said I wanted to go to the toilet, they threw in a bucket. If I talked back, I was beaten. It really got scary for me because I realised that if I disobeyed, they would kill me. That's how I became a slave in Northern Ireland."
”Members of the gang forcibly injected Lukas with heroin during the first two weeks of his captivity so that he couldn't escape. He says he was blindfolded each morning and driven to various locations across Belfast, with instructions to sell heroin from 10am until 10pm.
When the workday ended, someone picked him up, blindfolded him again and brought him back to the large house. Higher-up members of the gang then paid him in heroin, locking him in his room until the next day, when it was time to sell drugs again.”
www.sundayworld.com/crime/irish-crime/man-trafficked-to-ireland-as-slave-injected-with-heroin-and-forced-to-sell-it-on-streets/41516270.html