TWO crewmen from the Colombian ship which brought 50 kg of cocaine to Co Clare were arrested yesterday afternoon and are to appear before Ennis District Court this morning charged with the importation of drugs, according to a garda spokesman last night.
A third man who was brought into Ennis garda station for questioning at the same time was later released.
The three had been held under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, which allows up to 12 hours' detention without charge.
The three were arrested on the fifth day of the Garda and Customs search of the bulk carrier, the Front Guider, which has been detained at Moneypoint since last Wednesday morning.
They are the first people to be taken into custody in connection with the consignment of cocaine, which was found on board shortly after the ship docked.
Although the search of the 250-metre vessel is not expected to be completed until tonight or early tomorrow, gardai and Customs officers involved do not now expect to find any more drugs on board.
The ship is expected to be allowed to sail later this week. It is bound for Norway.
The cocaine was found in a cavity above the suspended ceiling of the ship's gymnasium last Wednesday. The area has been forensically examined by Garda technical experts and members of the 28-strong crew have been questioned and fingerprinted.
One of the 38 packages of cocaine, each weighing 1 kg or more, was tested at the State Forensic Science Laboratory in Dublin and found to contain cocaine which was 75 per cent pure, suggesting a street value of between £30 and £40 million for the consignment.
However, more packages will be tested before the overall purity and value of the cocaine can be officially determined.
The 150,000-tonne ship was escorted into the ESB generating station jetty by a Naval Service vessel early on Wednesday morning. It carried a cargo of coal for the station from Santa Marta in Colombia, and Interpol had alerted gardai to the likelihood of drugs on board. Customs officers and gardai boarded the ship as soon as it docked, while naval divers searched its underside.
The ship carried the largest consignment of cocaine ever discovered by the Irish authorities.
Most of the consignment is thought to have been headed for Britain, although it is likely the drugs would have been offloaded in the Republic.