Seven vulnerable people were recruited in Latvia with promises of wages, housing and a better life. Instead, their passports, bank cards and earnings were controlled; some were assaulted or threatened and forced into degrading accommodation. The exploitation continued from December 2020 until October 2023.
From recruitment to control
Workers were promised about €350 per week and accommodation without bills. In Donegal they were packed into substandard housing, charged rent and transport costs and subjected to arbitrary deductions. Their passports were taken, payslips diverted and bank accounts and cards controlled by Poniza and Pogosyan.
Victims described beatings, threats against families and repeated failed escapes. One preferred homelessness to returning. Others scavenged in bins for food. The two businesses where they worked cooperated with investigators and were not accused of criminality.
The reporting gap
One victim reported labour trafficking at Store Street Garda station on 25 April 2022. Six others later came forward. The arrests came on 24 October 2023 during an Irish-Latvian operation supported by Europol. The public record does not fully explain the approximately eighteen-month interval.
The victims sometimes saw the defendants speaking with local Garda members and, unable to understand the conversations, feared the traffickers had influence. There is no evidence of Garda complicity; the episode shows how language isolation and an appearance of respectability can suppress reporting.
Convictions and sentences
Both men pleaded guilty to human trafficking, money laundering and forgery offences. On 18 June 2026 Judge John Aylmer selected sixteen-year headline terms and reduced them to thirteen years after mitigation. Poniza received thirteen years. Pogosyan’s final two years were suspended, leaving eleven effective years.
Pogosyan had no previous convictions. Detailed reports give Poniza six earlier convictions, though one RTÉ passage conflicts with that account. This file records the discrepancy rather than resolving it editorially.
Nationality and removal
Poniza is Latvian and came to Ireland in 2017; as an EU citizen, his presence was not shown to be unlawful. Pogosyan is an Armenian national from Uzbekistan who came as an economic migrant. The court heard that Pogosyan had completed voluntary-departure documentation, but he remains imprisoned and has not yet physically departed. Any future removal of Poniza requires a lawful EU public-security assessment.
Costs and recovered wages
Using the 2024 Irish Prison Service rate of €99,072, the effective terms produce gross benchmarks of €1,287,936 for Poniza and €1,089,792 for Pogosyan: €2,377,728 combined. These are not individual invoices and exclude the multinational investigation, Europol support, prosecution, interpreters, victim services and removal.
The approximately €750,000 wage figure is victim loss, not taxpayer expenditure. Reports differ from an earlier, lower calculation, so the final sentencing figure is attributed rather than presented as audited recovery.
Chronology
- 2017: Poniza reportedly came to Ireland.
- December 2020: Proven trafficking period began.
- 25 April 2022: First victim reported trafficking.
- 24 October 2023: International operation and arrests.
- 2025: Guilty pleas followed an adjourned trial.
- 18 June 2026: Effective terms of thirteen and eleven years imposed.
Questions the State should answer
- What action followed the first report in April 2022?
- Why did arrests take approximately eighteen more months?
- Did payroll, bank or PPS records expose warning indicators?
- How much of the reported lost wages was recovered for victims?
- Will Pogosyan depart immediately after custody?
- Will Poniza face an EU public-security removal assessment?