Two men have appeared in court in Co Donegal where they have pleaded guilty to a total of twenty charges arising out of a large-scale people trafficking investigation.
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 Simon McAleese.
The case centres around the trafficking of people who were brought into the country to work at a business in south Donegal.
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 twelve people at Letterkenny Courthouse earlier today.
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 ten charges.
Poniza is a Latvian national.
Both men were remanded in custody and both cases were adjourned for mention to the next sitting of Donegal Circuit Court on 9 December.
