Gardaí were on Tuesday night continuing to question four men arrested in connection with the seizure of more than €30 million worth of cocaine off the south coast.
Some 25 officers from the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau (GNDOCB) were involved in the operation early Tuesday morning, which led to the seizure of 440kg of cocaine in Courtmacsherry, west Cork.
The national surveillance unit was also involved in the operation, as well as a team of armed officers from the emergency response unit (ERU) who had travelled from Dublin.
It is believed that two members of the gang came over from the UK by ferry from Fishguard over the weekend, while two others arrived in a high-powered rigid inflatable boat (RIB) two days ago.
READ MORE
It is understood the two men in the RIB crossed from Cornwall and sailed down the southwest coast, overnighting in Kinsale before meeting up with their associates in Courtmacsherry.
They then travelled out from the Co Cork town to rendezvous with a cargo ship somewhere off the southwest coast and collect the drugs, which they brought ashore at nearby Broad strand.
The four landed the drugs at the isolated beach and gardaí watched them unload 18 bales of cocaine, each weighing 25kg, from the RIB at about at 4am on Tuesday.
Gardaí continued to keep the gang under surveillance as they loaded the drugs into the back of a van, and detectives allowed two of the gang drive the vehicle away from the beach.
A team of armed officers from the ERU then intervened and stopped the van a short distance away in Courtmacsherry and arrested the driver and his passenger.
Detectives then brought the two men, a 40-year-old Scot from Glasgow and a 31-year-old German from Bavaria, to Bandon Garda station for questioning about the drug seizure.
The Irish Naval Service ship the LÉ William Butler Yeats detained the two other members of the gang off the Waterford coast following a pursuit involving two naval service RIBS.
Two armed maritime interdiction teams in naval service RIBs stopped and boarded the suspected smugglers’ vessel, which it is believed was en route back to Cornwall, and detained the suspects.
The two men were brought aboard the ship and taken to Haulbowline naval base, where they were handed over to GNDOCB detectives, who immediately arrested them.
The two men, a 44-year-old Englishman from Cornwall and a 36-year-old Scot from Aberdeenshire, were taken to Togher Garda station in Cork city for questioning.
All four suspects are held under section 50 of the Criminal Justice (Drugs Trafficking Act) 2007, which allows gardaí detain suspects for up to seven days before they must be charged or released.
Customs officers were meanwhile working to trace the movements of the mother ship, which they believed travelled from South America in the past week with the vacuum-packed cocaine haul.
Gardaí believe that none of the four men was resident in Ireland and travelled to west Cork specifically to land the drugs in a quiet area where they would go unnoticed.
The gang was using a UK-registered rental van to move the drugs, and gardaí have begun liaising with British police through Europol to try to establish when the van was rented and by whom.
They have also begun inquiries with British police to find out more about the three Britons arrested and with German police to find out more about the German suspect.
It is unclear whether all the drugs were intended for the UK market or whether a portion was intended for supply in Ireland.
Tánaiste and Minister for Defence Simon Harris and Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan congratulated the gardaí, the Naval Service and Customs for their work in foiling the smuggling operation.
