Heroin dealer 'Andre'
Furious residents drove heroin biker Andre off the streets after he was unmasked by the Sunday World last week.
It had been business as usual for the Polish national, peddling the deadly drug in view full of Sunday morning churchgoers last weekend – hours after his drug dealing operation was exposed.
Last week we snapped the 24-year-old doing business on the leafy avenues of the Botanic Gardens area of south Belfast. By the weekend the mountain biking dealer had moved to the Ormeau Road.
But on Sunday morning Andre was approached by a number of concerned residents who recognised him from our expose and told him in uncertain terms to leave the district.
He has not been seen in the area since last weekend but his place was instantly taken by other dealers.
Sources in the area told us dealers have been openly dealing drugs in the upmarket North Parade district, close to a children’s playpark and yards from the Ormeau Bowling Green.
Andre and other dealers, including a girl with bright dyed red hair, have been selling heroin in an alley on North Parade, and from a bus-stop at the gates of Cooke Centenary Church.
Rush hour commuters were oblivious to the drug pushers working in broad daylight.
According to our sources they have been a regular sight in recent months with the police seeming powerless to move them on. Members of the gang had been stopped and searched by police following calls of complaint.
No drugs have been recovered and even when one man was found to have been carrying a large sum of money, the police had no reason to detain him.
Andre and his fellow dealers sell quarter gram bags of heroin for £25, arranging to meet customers the deal is done in seconds. He approaches his client, the money and drugs are exchanged and they part.
It is understood the gang is also selling cocaine.
The crime gang continued to deal uninterrupted despite our revelations. While Andre was taken off the streets another man was working his patch this week.
He arrived on motorbike, parking close to the bus-stop outside the church. It is understood he was approached by police who tried to move him but he said his bike had run out of petrol and that he was waiting for a friend.
Witnesses said he did a drug deal shortly after the police left and drove off.
On a separate occasion a lone dealer was picked up in a top of the range Mercedes after selling drugs to another customer.
“Residents are concerned,” a community source told us. “They are alarmed at the amount of drugs on the streets, particularly heroin. Kids have found used needles in the park and it’s only a matter of time before someone gets badly hurt.”
He said they are frustrated police have been unable to take dealers off the streets, and he is concerned people may be tempted to take the law into their own hands.
“They (dealers) are selling this stuff in broad daylight, they haven’t a care in the world. It’s going to get to the stage when people will take their own action.”
Locals say there has been a sharp increase in the number of house break-ins over the past few months as users hooked on heroin resort to desperate measures to fund their habit.
One user told us he is spending more than £150 a day on the deadly drug.
It was also business as usual again in the Botanic area a quarter of a mile away. This man was posing as a beggar outside the train station but well informed sources told he is a member of the east European drug gang.
He tried to cover his face when approached by the Sunday World.
Many of the pushers are themselves drug users, paid in kind by the crime gang bosses and there is now a growing concern at the dramatic rise in the availability of heroin in Belfast.
As previously revealed by the Sunday World, Northern Ireland has been targeted by foreign organised crime gangs with at least two outfits fighting for control of the lucrative trade in south Belfast.
Graffiti which appeared last week
Last week we revealed how UVF chief Eddie ‘Onions’ Rainey ordered two east European drug dealers – including Andre to be beaten up.
This week fresh graffiti appeared on a gable wall off Botanic Avenue warning dealers they face reprisals. It is understood the message came from the UVF which is working in partnership with an organised gang known as The Russians.
For the last 18 months the Russians have taken control of the drugs racket in Belfast, outmuscling the UVF to set up a series of brothels across the south of the city and take a stranglehold on the drugs trade.
It is understood the gang operates at least six brothels but has been busy buying up vacant properties to expand their sex empire.
Women are being trafficked from eastern Europe and pressed into service in the sex industry. They are also being forced to courier drugs first into Dublin and then to Northern Ireland.
It is understood up to a dozen foreign nationals are now based in Belfast overseeing the criminal empire.
Like the Russians the new gang is selling high grade heroin and cocaine for £25 a bag and their emergence will be seen as a major headache for coke fiend Rainey.
There are increasing fears friction between the rival outfits could escalate into violence.
The Russians are well armed with a substantial cache of guns and grenades and there is a danger the UVF could be caught in the middle of a feud.