An Ulster loyalist paramilitary released from prison following the Belfast Agreement has been arrested in Spain.
Mr Stephen Harbinson (35) has been detained on charges of drug trafficking, arms possession and forged documents.
Mr Harbinson was arrested with Mr Donald Marno (40) his brother Mr Gary Marno (37) and Mr Alasdair McKendrie (37).
Mr Harbinson was a convicted member of the Ulster Volunteer Force who was freed under the Belfast Agreement of 1998 aimed at bringing peace to Northern Ireland, police say.
Police initially said the four were citizens of the Republic but later found their passports were false. The four were all found to be British citizens from Northern Ireland.
Police confiscated two submachine guns, a handgun, handcuffs and a considerable number of false passports in a raid on a villa in Torremolinos when the four were arrested last week.
The four are said to have been involved in the attempted abduction last year in the Spanish resort town of Fuengirola of an Englishman with previous drug convictions in Britain.
Police came across the gang trying to force the man into the boot of a car. The gang escaped.
Police officials say they are also investigating whether the four had any links with the killing last year of an Ulsterman whose body was found in the boot of a car at Malaga airport, near Torremolinos.
The man have been taken from his house at gunpoint a day earlier in the nearby town of Mijas. Police then said they suspected his killing might have been a settling of accounts between drug trafficking gangs.
PA