When Romanian Alex Iulian last week admitted on Facebook he'd been questioned by police over the alleged rape of a 16-year-old schoolgirl in Ballymena, he also unwittingly shone the spotlight on his lavish lifestyle.

Alex took to social media to deny rumours circulating that he had anything to do with the horrific incident which sparked three days of riots in the Co Antrim town.

But along with his protestations of innocence were videos of a rather more boorish and defiant nature where he appeared to show off his wealth by blowing kisses and throwing wads of cash at the camera.

He also posted a photo of a top of the range Audi in his driveway.

Alex says he made his money by working 'legally in construction', pays taxes and his only intention was to 'build one decent life away from home'. In a Facebook post he also said: 'I have been living in the UK since 2016, since then I have a job.'

But the sight of Alex showing off his money in the poverty-stricken and working class Harryville area has led to hard-up locals wondering just how Alex and Romanian immigrants like him are making their money in Northern Ireland.

Some, like Alex, have jobs in construction, laying driveways and fixing roofs and doing general building work in legitimate businesses, and there is no suggestion of any financial or criminal wrongdoing on the part of Alex and genuine workers.

But elsewhere huge amounts of money are generated from alleged serious crime, such as human trafficking, slavery and sexual exploitation. 'Romanian cigarettes' are for sale on the local Facebook group for around £7 per pack, for example.

Many Romanians in Northern Ireland end up being employed illegally by 'gangmasters' in car washes and fruit picking, while being paid less than the minimum wage and kept in inhumane conditions.

But in some of those situations, there is another Romanian making large sums of money out of the trade in misery.

In one recent case, Romanian nationals Ilea Ionut and his partner Ancuta Schwarz controlled vulnerable women brought to Belfast to work as sex slaves in pop-up brothels in the city as well as pimping them out in Sweden.

The sex traffickers were investigated after a young woman who had been held captive by the gang for ten months bravely made a bolt for freedom after overhearing her captors talking about plans to take her to the Middle East.

One victim, whose identity is protected, said they were threatened that if they 'don't stop crying and do exactly what they say, they're going to kill my mum'.

She added: 'They brought me to Belfast, I was made to work as a sex slave. I felt like a battery hen, but for sex.

'I was working as a cleaner to make some money. One day, like any other, I was walking from one house to the next, cleaning houses, when suddenly I was snatched off the streets. I was kidnapped.

'Someone said the words, "This one looks better". At that point, I knew I was to be sold for my body. I was made to work as a sex slave. They advertised me online.

'Then customers would come for sexual services. They would move me from place to place, renting flats to make a pop-up brothel.'

A trial in Sweden found Ionut and Schwarz guilty of human trafficking and controlling prostitution and both were sentenced to four years in prison to be served there, before being extradited to Belfast to face justice there.

They each pleaded guilty to human trafficking, controlling prostitution and money laundering and were sentenced to a further two years in prison. As a result of the investigation, 13 women were rescued from sex trafficking.

A local Facebook group, Romani in Ballymena, gives an insight into some of the legitimate jobs Romanians allegedly take to make money in Northern Ireland.

Jobs discussed range from skilled plasterers, ground workers and food production staff, along with Amazon warehouse workers and delivery drivers.

But with the kinds of adverts that might crop up in any such local group for nail services, eyelashes and crafts, massage, car window tinting, hairdressing and dog grooming, there is also someone selling 'Romanian cigarettes', potentially at prices which do not include customs charges.

And among the job adverts and items for sale is another theme, one which exposes a deep and bitter divide running through the Eastern European community in Northern Ireland.

A lot of Romanians there are employed by the giant Moy Park chicken processing factory in Ballymena.

Some Eastern Europeans living there take to TikTok to flaunt their wealth with videos waving wads of cash.

Yannis Printo posted clips of him leafing through piles of notes.

It is not clear how he makes his money, but his TikTok profile shows a number of cars being worked on in a garage.

There are frequent posts blaming the Roma for the bad reputation of Romanians and other Eastern Europeans abroad. In Romania itself, the Roma make up somewhere between 3 and 8 percent of the population.

One translated post blames the police and local authorities in Ballymena, claiming: 'They have not taken any action against the gypsies who do not work, do not send their children to school...

'Because of them, the community of Romanians suffers.'

A local gypsy community leader, Cristi Buceanu, in turn appeals for calm, writing: 'A nation, a people, must not be judged through the prism of the actions of a small group that have antisocial behaviours.

'I am convinced that what happened in Ballymena was an isolated case and justice must be left to do its job.'

However it seems that the vast majority of Romanians in Northern Ireland are law-abiding people who are as sickened as anyone when cases of abuse are regularly exposed, with some criminals getting rich by exploiting the weak.

In an infamous 2014 modern slavery case, an illegal Romanian gangmaster was fined just £500 for keeping fellow countrymen in inhumane conditions in Lurgan, Co Armagh.

Gheorge Ionas employed the men as slaves to pick apples and kept them in horrific conditions.

When his home in Ballymena was raided, police discovered three Romanian men sleeping in an outbuilding. It was made out of bare breeze blocks and had no heating and only limited electricity and was later declared 'unfit for human habitation' by environmental health officers at Craigavon Borough Council.

Ionas paid the workers £100 per week, which was well below the minimum wage, to work long hours picking around orchards in Co Armagh. The men he kept as slaves were so poor that they were seen foraging in supermarket bins for out-of-date food.

A year later 12 Romanian workers lured to Northern Ireland were denied wages and left living hungry and exhausted in cramped and sub-standard conditions.

Ioan Lacatus enticed the group to Northern Ireland and kept them in a cramped house in Portadown, Co Armagh, while making them work in car washes and factories.

Most of the workers were from a remote part of Romania close to the Hungarian border. When they arrived in Northern Ireland their passports were taken away and they were made to sign various forms arranging for their wages to be paid into bank accounts.

Lacatus withheld their wages, claiming that the money would go towards paying their debts to him.

A judge was told the nine men and three women said what they endured was worse than the poverty they had left behind.

When they asked for more food he told them they should eat stones.

In the house where they lived, several people shared bedrooms by sleeping on cramped mattresses.

Lacatus, who had lived in Northern Ireland for six years, allegedly warned the workers not to leave the house because they would be arrested or encounter hostile locals.

He was jailed for two-and-a-half years after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to traffic people for exploitation within the UK, four counts of trafficking into the UK migrant workers for exploitation, acting as unlicensed gang master and converting criminal property.

In 2018, Romanian Spartacus Mihai was part of an organised crime gang who made at least of £125,000 from a sex trade centred in Banbridge, Co Down by trafficking women to work as prostitutes despite claiming he made his money as a second-hand car dealer.

In 2017, Mihai and his then-28-year-old brother Decebal were jointly charged with controlling prostitution, conspiracy to traffic within the United Kingdom, and concealing, converting and transferring criminal property.

Outlining the case against Decebal, a prosecutor told the court: 'While in Northern Ireland the brothers were depositing vast amounts of cash into UK bank accounts.

'It is believed to be around £100,000 earned from the prostitutes. A further £26,000 was said to have been wired to Romania.

'Police believe he's part of an organised crime gang and if he was released, he will continue to traffic victims.'

In July 2023, the Police Service of Northern Ireland's (PSNI) modern slavery and human trafficking unit carried out a significant operation into an organised crime group in Belfast.

Conducted jointly with Romanian authorities, it focused on a group suspected of trafficking young Romanian women throughout Northern Ireland for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

Two men, aged 29 and 36, and a woman, aged 35, were each arrested on suspicion of human trafficking for sexual exploitation, controlling prostitution for gain, brothel keeping and money laundering.

Detective Inspector Rachel Miskelly said: 'It's suspected that this crime group enticed young Romanian women to travel to Northern Ireland from Romania, with the false promise of lawful employment in a commercial setting.

'The grim reality is that, upon arrival, they're forced into prostitution and exploited.

'So far, six victims have been identified, some of whom are already engaging with us and receiving support.

'These young women have been treated appallingly. They have been forced to engage in sexual activity, and the money made at their expense lines the pockets of the crime group members.'