Heroin deal 'Dikos'
'Dikos' in his heroin transaction with Hugh Jordan
These are the new faces of Ulster drugs scourge.
Six weeks after the Sunday World exposed the eastern European organised crime gangs flooding the streets of Belfast with class A drugs such as cocaine and heroin – these shocking picture show it’s business as usual.
Deadly narcotics continue to be peddled in broad daylight under the noses of PSNI officers, and the ruthless gang behind the operation is rapidly turning the city into a heroin hell.
The Dublin-based villians have identified Northern Ireland as a lucrative market place.
This week the Sunday World exposes more of the criminal figures at heart of the drug dealing gang.
Less than two months ago we lifted the lid on a ‘dial-a-deal’ heroin supply gang, which was using a squad of innocent-looking bike riders to supply and sell heroin and cocaine around the leafy lanes of the Queen’s University area of Belfast.
Gang bosses pulled the bike teams out of the city moving them to Dublin.
Through a series of contacts the Sunday World came face to face with one of the gang’s most prominent dealers.
We met in the lobby of a well-known hotel just across the border in Co. Louth.
An elderly foreign national with a gentle smile and a firm handshake, and posing as a successful criminal businessman, he bought our story that we were ready to join his team of drug runners.
The men – all ex-members members of the Polish military – were instructed to supply this reporter with heroin at a wholesale price.
A few days later in Belfast, we were introduced to ‘Dikos’ – a former soldier in the Polish Army – who heads up the cartel’s money-spinning operation in Belfast.
Standing six feet tall and a fitness fanatic, he controls the daily supply of heroin, cocaine and highly addictive crystal meth, to the Belfast’s growing drug dependent community.
Wearing standard drug dealers garb of designer sportswear, complete with a scarf partially covering my face and the obligatory beanie hat, I went ‘up close and personal’ with ‘Stephanos’ – another ex-member of the Polish Armed Forces – who provides the muscle to allow his boss to deal drugs unhindered.
Unseen most of the time, this ‘man mountain’ remains within ‘shouting distance’ of Dikos who dishes out drugs deals at a furious rate. Stephanos is known for extreme violence.
And it is his job to deal with any possible threats or disruption from loyalist or republican paramilitary organisations in Belfast.
On the streets, Dikos sells .2 grams of heroin deals at £25 per wrap. And he knocks out .25 grams of cocaine and crystal meth for the same price. From the second he appears on the streets at 10.00am sharp each morning Dikos offers a range of drugs for sale.
However, we soon learnt that Dikos and his team deal mostly in heroin – the most deadly and dangerous drug of all.
And I was also introduced to the diminutive Boguslav, another former soldier. Known as Bobby, he acts as an eagle-eyed lookout for the death-dealing gang. ‘Bobby’ has no ‘hands on’ role in the supply or sale of drugs. His job is simply to provide an early warning alarm to the other two at the slightest sign of police or any other unwanted presence.
The drugs gang controlled by Dikos operate 12 hour shifts, offering addicts a drugs menu consisting of heroin, cocaine and crystal meth from 10.00am until 10.pm. Initial contact is made by telephone where a male voice informs potential buyers where to locate the drugs team.
Hugh Jordan with the bag of heroin he bought from 'Dikos'
His sales blueprint is almost identical to the one used by the biker gang although it is clear Dikos’s team turns over far greater quantities of drugs in the course of the day.
Earlier this week, I arranged to meet ‘Dikos’ and his men as they sold drugs in the vicinity of Cooke Centenary Presbyterian Church on Belfast’s Ormeau Road.
I told ‘Dikos’ I wanted to purchase some heroin with a view to testing its quality. And I also told him that if his heroin was up to the mark, I would be placing a substantial order with him.
It was shortly after 10.00am on Tuesday, when I spotted ‘Dikos’ walking up the Ormeau Road.
After acknowledging my presence with a casual nod of the head, he beckoned me to follow him down the tree-lined North Parade.
At a laneway near the rear of the church, ‘Dikos’ stopped suddenly. In broken English, he asked what kind of drugs I required as samples. I replied “Brown” – the drugs scene code word for heroin, which is also known as the dirty drug.
‘Dikos’ produced several wraps of heroin which he had secreted inside his mouth.
I took possession of the drugs and handed him cash in full payment. Without another word, the Polish drugs baron turned on his heels and he was immediately approached by a number of clearly drugs-dependent customers wishing to buy heroin.
From a safe position, ‘Stephanos’ kept a close eye on proceedings and ‘Boguslav’ scoured the horizon for police. However, despite their streetwise and worldly ways, none of the trio noticed that a Sunday World photographer had snapped the entire episode, including the moment the drugs were handed over and paid for.
As well as selling drugs at the Cooke Centenary Church, ‘Dikos’ and his men also deal drugs at Camden Street, off the Lisburn Road and under a bridge at a traffic island on the approach road to the M2 motorway!
Drugs dependent customer gather daily at Henry Street in the New Lodge district before taking their lives in their hands by racing across eight lanes of motorway bound traffic.
Today, the Sunday World makes no apology for naming and exposing the drugs dealers peddling certain death.
And on behalf of the people of Belfast, we are asking the PSNI Chief Constable George Hamilton - for the second time in two months - just what he plans to do to counteract the foreign national drugs barons now blatantly selling death on the streets of Northern Ireland’s largest city.