Episode 103: The Lithuanian gang who flooded Ireland with heroin through their network of slave dealers
A Lithuanian gang who flew unwitting slaves into Ireland to sell heroin and then starved and beat them sounds like the plot from a TV crime drama – but that’s exactly what happened over the course of 15 years until Gardai, the PSNI and their Eastern European counterparts uncovered the mob.
Known as ‘The Russians’, the gang fuelled Northern Ireland’s emerging heroin market from the mid 2000s and later placed agents in Cork, Galway, Waterford and Kerry after being run out of Dublin by bigger gangs.
Nicola Tallant talks with journalist Paulie Doyle, who followed the trail of gang leader Kestutis Klemauskas and his violent lieutenants from Lithuania into the heart of loyalist Belfast and onwards to the big cities of Ireland where they pocketed a fortune from the slave dealers.
In a lengthy investigation for Vice World News and working with the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, he drew together the pieces of a story that make for an incredible insight into organised crime in a modern world.
Crime Word Podcast can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and Soundcloud.
Read more
- Episode 102: The life and crimes of Kinahan cartel crony Johnny 'Cash' Morrissey
- Episode 101: What's next for the WAGS of the Kinahan Cartel?
- Episode 100: The Kinahan Cartel's partnership with Scotland's most-feared mobs
- Episode 99: The continued 'Manhunt' for double murder suspect Kevin Parle
- Episode 98: How the Kinahan Cartel broke into the U.S. Boxing scene
- Episode 97: Christy Kinahan Snr - The Cartel 'Godfather' who hid in plain sight
- Episode 96: How sadistic killer Graham Dwyer is one step closer to freedom
- Episode 95: My ordinary 'Old Man' - the UK super-criminal
- Episode 94: How the world's law enforcement plotted the downfall of the Kinahan Cartel
- Episode 93: The gangland murder of James Whelan and the 'Mr Flashy' feud
Today's Headlines
Provo protection | Salman Rushdie was protected by IRA on visits to Ireland under his deadly £3m fatwa
RESEVOIR MURDER | Exclusive: Suspect in murder of Co Tyrone man Damien Heagney is convicted drug dealer
Tributes | Paddy Morris (39) who died after getting into difficulty in River Barrow was ‘loving family man’
'principles' | Leo Varadkar takes aim at Sinn Féin during Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins commemoration
'Disrespectful' | Gardaí ask public to stop sharing images of fatal assault on Paul ‘Babs’ Connolly
'frustrating' | Uncle of murdered Joe Deacy blasts ‘Mafia-like’ silence as case remains unsolved
Prison Death | Body of murdered Mountjoy prisoner Robert O’Connor brought home ahead of funeral
red rage | Gary Neville continues his attack on the Glazers as Manchester United hit new low
Violent burglary | Co Antrim teen accused of robbing her own grandad’s home freed on bail despite objections
MOANING OF LIFE | Meet Ireland’s orgasm queen teaching women to give themselves a helping hand
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