A Brazilian woman who came to Ireland as part of a prostitution ring on a student visa has been sentenced to three years in prison.
Bruna Da Silveira (26) of O’Reilly’s Avenue, Dublin 8, pleaded guilty to one count of participating in the activities of a criminal organisation.
Judge Elma Sheahan heard evidence from Garda Inspector Adrian Kinsella of the Garda National Protective Service (GNPS) of how the group leased properties across Dublin as well as in other parts of Ireland to use as brothels.
The gang, four of whom are before the courts in Ireland while two others are being prosecuted in Brazil, trafficked approximately 29 women in their late teens and 20s from Brazil to work in the sex industry in Ireland, prosecuting counsel Fiona McGowan BL outlined.
Between April 2024 and October 2025, a total of €737,013 passed through three accounts in her name and was sent to Brazil.
After officers from the GNPS conducted welfare checks on the women involved in the “sex work”, one of them agreed to provide investigators with detailed information about the operations of the gang, while the others said they were “happy enough with what they were doing”, the court heard.
Ms Da Silveira, who intends to claim asylum in Ireland, was represented by Michael Lynn SC, supported by Sam Friel BL.
The court heard that the accused worked as an escort while she was in a relationship with another man whom the State believe is the head of the gang in Ireland.
Inspector Kinsella agreed with Ms McGowan that the three properties – 10 in all – that Da Silveira operated out of: 18 Baggot Street Lower, Dublin 2; 21-22 O’Reilly’s Avenue, Dublin 8; and 99 Mourne Road, Drimnagh, Dublin 12 were booked on short-term leases via Airbnb and booking.com.
Gang organised travel of women into Ireland as part of organised prostitution ring
The young woman who became an informant said that she had attempted to enter Ireland through the UK but was refused permission to land and sent back to Brazil before later successfully entering Ireland through Portugal.
Ms McGowan told the court that this woman had met the head of the gang through a friend in Brazil. This woman said that 50% of the proceeds of the sex work were retained by the gang, while the women had to pay for their accommodation and other expenses from the remaining 50%, which was paid to them.
She detailed how she was made to work from 12 pm – 3 am on weekdays, 12 pm – 4 am on weekends, and had one day off a month.
The woman said that she knew she was being brought to Ireland to work in the sex industry and that she would record a video of herself every day to be uploaded on her Escourt Ireland profile.
She said she was told what to do to prepare for each client and that payments were arranged beforehand.
The witness said that she believed Da Silveira had involvement in the gag “above and beyond” sex work.
The court heard that between 2020 and 2024 Da Silveria had travelled to Israel, Saudi Arabia, Croatia, and Serbia with her boyfriend before coming to Ireland and that the pair had been unsuccessful in their attempts to enter the UK.
Da Silveira, who was aided by a Portuguese interpreter, came to Ireland in July 2024 on a student visa; however, Inspector Kinsella said it was not known whether she had actually attended college.
On the 3rd of September 2025, Gardaí executed a search warrant at 22 O’Reilly’s Avenue where they found the accused alone. This property had been visited before as part of Garda welfare checks, Ms McGowan said.
The accused was arrested and initially told Gardaí she was operating as a prostitute on her own.
Defending counsel, Michael Lynn SC, said that his client comes from “a very poor family” and wanted to earn money to support her mother, who has a son now aged eight years.
He argued that, of the four people before the courts in this jurisdiction, his client was on the lower end in terms of the seriousness of offending, and said that the man with whom she was involved in a relationship had made threats to kill the woman who had cooperated with Gardaí as a witness.
Mr Lynn argued that the unnamed woman had been “very plain that she was intimidated by this man” and that she was “scared for her family back in Brazil.”
He said that when his client was found with three other women at 18 Baggot Street Lower, she explained the operations of the gang.
Mr Lynn said that he was “not seeking to minimise” his client’s offending, as the court heard that the properties were leased in her name and her accounts had been used to process payments and send the proceeds of criminality to Brazil.
As Mr Lynn developed the argument that his client was under the influence of her boyfriend, Inspector Kinsella told the court that she had been allowed to report being the victim of trafficking but didn’t “engage” with this line, adding that Ruhama had been involved in the Garda welfare checks on the brothels.
Mr Lynn read from part of a statement his client has made in which she spoke about the man she had become involved with, saying, “I had feelings for him” and “he manipulated me”, before saying himself “We’re talking about a very intimidating man here.”
Ms McGowan advised the court that the maximum sentence for the offending is 15 years.
Judge Shehan said, “She was allowing her accounts to be used to accept payments to transfer money in Ireland and to Brazil and was involved in the rental of property for the benefit of the organised crime gang.”
The court asked what the “benefit” to De Silveira was “above and beyond the money,” to which Inspector Kinsella replied that he was “not aware” of anything.
Pleading for leniency, Mr Lynn said that his client is an enhanced prisoner and works in the prison kitchen while attending school there.
He said that, “as a foreign national” with “no good English”, prison was “arduous” for his client as her family are “all in Brazil” and she has “a very lonely existence” in jail.
“I know you’ll factor in that she is a foreign national,” he pleaded.
“She’s desperate to go home as a Brazilian national in an Irish prison,” before Mr Friel reminded him that it was now Da Silveira’s intention to claim asylum in Ireland
“She’s now intending to apply for international protection because she fears for her safety if she returns home,” he said, adding that, as for his plea that she wanted to return to Brazil, “I actually meant it in the human sense.”
Ms McGowan told Judge Sheahan that the Gardaí would make a recommendation that the accused be deported.
Having risen to consider the facts, Judge Sheahan said that it is “accepted that her role is at the lower level when one considers the other roles before the courts but it is clear that her role in allowing the use of her accounts and booking and paying for premises is a role of significance in the overall scheme of what organised crime seems to achieve, which is to make money: and in this case to transfer money out of the jurisdiction to buy assess elsewhere.
“She accepts that she profited from her relationship with the head of this organisation from gifts received and money sent to her family in Brazil.”
“It is the court’s position that the provision of her bank accounts facilitated the operation of the organisation in a material way.”
The court said that the aggravating factors in the case were “the seriousness of the offending in and of itself, the international nature of the offending involving the transnational movement of significant amounts of money, and the abuse of young vulnerable women to achieve that aim, and the awful conditions under which they had to work to produce that profit.”
Turning to the mitigating factors, the court noted the guilty plea, the lack of previous convictions, and her “personal circumstances and the reason she became involved with the head of the organisation” and “the fact that she is in custody as a foreign national in Ireland with no community support is a fact that the court takes into consideration.”
She said that the court was “bound to take into consideration the impact of a custodial sentence on a person for the first time.”
“Mr Lynn asked to consider her youth; she is now nearly 27 and would have been about 24 years old at the time,” Judge Shehan said, adding that her involvement was at the “lower level” and that the “harm done is mid range”.
The court set a headline sentence of five years and six months before reducing this with mitigation to three years and six months with the final six months conditionally suspended. This was backdated to the 3rd of September 2025 to account for time already spent in custody.