Heroin dealer 'Andre'
Andre (on bicycle) and one of his runners
A massive wave of the deadly drug heroin is sweeping over posh parts of Belfast, the Sunday World can reveal.
Today we expose for the first time full details of a ‘deals on wheels’ and ‘dial-a-drug’ service operating in broad daylight around the leafy lanes of the university area.
Until recently, the sale of heroin – known in the narcotics trade as the ‘dirty drug’ – has been confined largely to run-down estates in the bible-belt towns of Antrim and Ballymena.
But now, as a result of a new drugs supply system recently established around the largely middle class Botanic and Queen’s University areas, access to heroin and cocaine has never been easier.
Unless steps are taken immediately to stamp out the sale of heroin on the streets, then drug dependency in the capital will soon be a major social problem.
This week the Sunday World got up close and personal with ‘Andre’ 5 a 24-year-old Polish-born heroin and cocaine dealer – who recently set up shop in Belfast.
Andre offers quarter gram bags of heroin or cocaine for sale for £25 and he is currently Belfast’s biggest supplier of heroin and cocaine.
We were told Andre sells only pure heroin which is used by addicts who inject it into their veins through needles. These users are known in the drugs trade as ‘diggers’.
Others burn it on tinfoil and inhale the smoke – commonly known as ‘chasing the dragon’.
Despite his east European origins, Andre speaks perfect English. And he controls a team of bike-riding couriers – all foreign nationals from Lithuania – who bring dozens of drug dependent heroin addicts to him every day.
A Sunday World investigation this week into Andre’s street-dealing heroin empire revealed he and his cohorts are living in rented apartments around the Donegall Road and Dublin Road areas of south Belfast. And they confine their illegal drug sales to the safer streets of south Belfast.
Their ‘deals of wheels’ service is open for business 12 hours per day, from 10.00am until 10.00pm.
The gang operate at eight different pick points which can change at any moment, depending on police activity in south Belfast.
The Sunday World witnessed Andre and his men dealing outside the following locations:
* Botanic Gardens toilets
* Centra Shop, Stranmillis
* Dublin Road Tesco
* Subway, Dublin Road
* Ibis Hotel, University Street
* Blackstaff Square
* Ormeau Park toilets
Andre and his gang use bicycles as their mode of transport and distribution. In fact, bikes are the key to Andre’s success. His men are able to identify each other from a distance by small flashes of green tape wrapped around the supports of the rear wheel.
The bikes also allow the drug gang greater flexibility when trying to evade the prying eyes of the police. Andre’s men are all extremely security conscious and they rarely move to deal drugs unless they are certain the coast is clear.
Despite this, the Sunday World was still able to sleep-walk the heroin-dealing gang into a perfect sunny afternoon sting operation – and they didn’t even know it happened.
And we were on top of them also when they sold our operatives – one of them a young teenager – a bag of highly addictive heroin for £25.
A quick phone call to a previously supplied mobile phone number was all it took to get things moving.
We photographed one heroin deal as it took place on a shady pathway in Belfast’s Botanic Gardens, while another went down at the rear of a church, a little more than a stone’s throw from the main Queen’s University building.
After making our initial call, a ‘runner’ working for ‘Andre’ arranged to meet our man near public toilets in the middle of Botanic Gardens. And with a slight nod the runner – who spoke only a smattering of English – ‘scouted’ our man in the direction Queen’s University Sports Centre, where ‘Andre’ was waiting to sell him drugs.
“White or brown?” asked Andre, as he quickly counted the £25 our man had just handed him.
“Brown,” he answered, indicating that he wished to purchase heroin and not cocaine. From inside his mouth Andre produced a small clingfilm-wrapped bag of brown powder and disappeared on his bike without another word.
This all happened in full view of pensioners and young families strolling through Botanic Gardens on their way to the nearby Ulster Museum.
And we were back out early the following morning in time to snatch a close up shot of ‘Andre’ and his heroin and cocaine gang as they prepared to begin another busy day dealing the ‘dirty drug’.
This time Andre based himself under a tree in Hamilton Street in the Markets area while his bike-riding runners brought a steady flow of heroin buyers to him from nearby Blackstaff Square.
Suddenly and without warning, Andre and the gang were gone. The presence of police in the area may have spooked them.
But after a quick call to set up another deal a short time
later, we were give instructions to wait on University Street opposite the Ibis Hotel and a short walk from Botanic Avenue.
Within five minutes, one of Andre’s runners appeared on his bike outside Fitzroy Presbyterian Church on the opposite side of the street. He beckoned our man to follow him down a street which runs along the side of the large sandstone church.
In a laneway to the rear of the property Andre was waiting.
“Brown,” our man told him. And once again Andre produced a bag of clingfilm-wrapped heroin from the inside his mouth.
It is estimated ‘Andre’ rakes in around 20 grand a week from this lucrative money-spinning operation.
We later learned that Andre’s main base, and the place where he keeps his heroin and cocaine stashes, is a brick-built terrace house on Donegall Road in the staunchly loyalist Village area of south Belfast.
It is to this property he returns on his bike several times a day to pick up fresh supplies of heroin and cocaine.
This system ensures he will never caught in possession of large amounts of either heroin or cocaine.
In the course of our investigation, we learned too that Andre has mastered the technique of holding 20 quarter gram bags of heroin and cocaine in his mouth and yet he is still able to speak.
He starts off his day with 15 bags of heroin and five bags of cocaine hidden in his mouth. To the untrained eye it appears as though his mouth is empty. But the truth is he is able to secrete £500 worth of drugs in his mouth at any one time.
He recently came a cropper though when he was detained by police on suspicion of possession of drugs. However, the Godfather successfully managed to swallow the entire stash before the police had time to look inside his mouth. He later passed the drugs through his digestive system and recovered them for future resale.
In the past week the drugs Godfather has been physically attacked twice by local men anxious to stamp out heroin dealing on their doorstep. But within 20 minutes of each attack, he was back on the streets again dealing heroin.
Community leaders on both sides of the religious divide have combined forces in recent weeks in an effort to stampt out heroin dealing. Activists in Donegall Pass have swopped information and photographs of some of those involved in the heroin trade.
The Sunday World also learned that around two thirds of Andre’s heroin-buying customers travel from west Belfast to pick supplies in the south side of the city.