Two men plead guilty after large-scale human trafficking probe

Stephen Maguire

Two men have appeared in court in Co Donegal, where they have pleaded guilty to a total of 20 charges arising out of a large-scale people trafficking investigation.

Eastern Europeans Georgijs Poniza, 37, and Armen Pogosyan, 32, appeared at Donegal Circuit Court, where both were due to stand trial on a number of charges.

A large number of witnesses, including gardaí, had been scheduled to give evidence in the trial, which was due to last up to six weeks before Judge Jonathan Dunphy.

However, just before the trial was due to commence, both accused men changed their pleas to guilty on a number of the charges.

Both men have addresses at Assaroe Falls in Ballyshannon but have been detained in prison after they were arrested by gardaí two years ago.

The charges to which the accused have pleaded include six different counts of people trafficking on various dates for each.

The pair also each pleaded guilty to four other charges relating to money laundering and forgery.

The accused men were both arraigned separately on all charges and pleaded guilty before a jury of 12 people at Letterkenny Courthouse earlier on Wednesday.

The first to plead was Pogosyan, who simply replied 'guilty' after each charge was put to him.

Pogosyan is an Armenian national with an Uzbekistan passport.

After a lunchtime recess, Poniza's legal counsel then told the court that he too wished to plead guilty to 10 charges.

Poniza is a Latvian national.

As well as the people trafficking charges, Pogosyan and Poniza, also pleaded to money laundering and forgery charges.

Judge Jonathan Dunphy instructed that governor's reports be compiled on each accused as well as Probation and Welfare reports.

Both men were remanded in custody and both cases were adjourned for mention to the next sitting of Donegal Circuit Court on December 9th.

*This article was amended on December 9th, 2025