The IRA has always been highly sensitive about any suggestion that it is involved in the drugs trade and rejects claims that it extorts money from traffickers in return for "protection".
Only three weeks ago the organisation issued a statement saying that an article in The Irish Times had "attempted to link the IRA to the drugs trade".
"The IRA leadership refutes these baseless allegations which have been fabricated to mislead the public. The IRA's position on the drugs trade is well known. We are totally opposed to it in all forms."
Indeed, the IRA has been responsible for killing as many as 15 men in Dublin, Belfast and Derry in the past three years for alleged involvement in the drugs trade.
Gardai investigating the murder of the Dublin criminal, Seamus "Shavo" Hogan last month believe he may have been shot dead by the IRA.
After the first IRA cessation, in 1994, the IRA set up a special wing to kill drug dealers in Belfast. The unit, using the pseudonym Direct Action Against Drugs (DAAD), shot dead 12 people.
However, police sources on both sides of the Border have said they believe certain major drug traffickers in Dublin and the Border areas are paying the IRA to stay in business.
One south Dublin criminal is said to levy other drug traffickers and pass the money on to IRA representatives. One of the biggest drug dealers to have operated in the Border area, Paddy Farrell from Newry, was known to have immunity from the IRA and was suspected of paying members of the organisation substantial amounts of money. Farrell was shot dead by his girlfriend three years ago.
Given the IRA's recently stated position on the "drugs trade" the reasons behind the visit to the area of southern Colombia controlled by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) are not clear.
FARC is described by the US State Department as a "narco-terrorist" organisation that has replaced the former cocaine cartels in Colombia and has become one of the world's largest and wealthiest drug-supplying organisation.
Senior security figures in Colombia say the IRA was helping FARC with its bomb-making expertise. Despite its great wealth FARC is said to have only rudimentary ordnance skills. The IRA, by contrast, developed highly sophisticated bomb-making skills in the 1980s and 1990s. It seems it may be prepared to pass on these skills in return for assistance "whether in cash or firearms".
The Colombian authorities are increasingly concerned by the growing strength and threat from FARC. The government has already ceded 16,000 square miles to the organisation.
Yesterday Sinn Fein moved to try and distance itself from the south American events. "None of the three men arrested in Colombia are members of Sinn Fein," the party said in a statement issued in Belfast. "They were not there on Sinn Fein business. Whatever they were there for, it is not our responsibility. It has nothing to do with us."
However, two of the three men arrested and imprisoned in Bogota are known to have links with the party. Mr James Monaghan from Co Donegal was once a member of Sinn Fein's ardcomhairle and Mr Martin McCauley from Lurgan, Co Armagh, was an election worker for the party five years ago.
Security sources said all three, including Mr Niall Connolly (36) from Dublin were believed to belong to the Provisional IRA.
Meanwhile, the three will remain in custody in Bogota and are likely to be arraigned on terrorist-related charges at the weekend.
There was no explanation offered as to what the three men were doing in Colombia at a time when the IRA had supposedly offered General John de Chastelain a plan to put their guns beyond use.
The proposition was withdrawn on Tuesday. The pro-agreement parties in the North are preparing to begin yet another series of negotiations in an attempt to end the deadlock over decommissioning, demilitarisation and future policing arrangements.
Yesterday, some Ulster Unionists warned that the arrests in Colombia could shatter the process. There has been no official response from the British or Irish governments and no comment, to date, from the US government which, in 1995, underpinned the IRA cessation by allowing its political wing to raise funds in the US.