Spanish police are continuing to question two men who were arrested last night in connection with the investigation into the discovery of €100 million worth of cocaine off the Mizen Peninsula in west Cork earlier this week.
US-registered catamaran Lucky Day was detained off the coast of northern Spain after a request from gardaí in Ireland. The two men, understood to be from Lithuania, were on board. The vessel was brought to the port in La Coruna, where it is now under armed guard.
Gardaí and customs officers here believed the drugs seized on Monday were smuggled by men in a rigid inflatable boat that may have liaised with a larger vessel or 'mother ship' out at sea.
Four men are still being held in Ireland in connection with Monday's seizure. Over 60 packages of cocaine were pulled from the sea after rigid inflatable boat believed to have been used for smuggling the drugs capsized in poor weather.
A man was arrested for questioning yesterday after he was discharged from hospital where he had been receiving treatment.
The man, who is in his 40s and claims to be a South African living in the UK, was arrested under anti-drug trafficking legislation shortly after he was discharged just before 4pm from Bantry General Hospital.
He was taken from the sea in a semi-conscious state at Dunlough Bay by Castletownbere lifeboat after spending an estimated three hours in the water after the rigid inflatable boat in which two of the smuggling gang were allegedly travelling capsized.
The man was brought to Bantry Garda station for questioning yesterday afternoon.
Gardai had already obtained a 72-hour custody extension to allow them question another man (22) who was arrested on Monday after he swam to shore. They last night successfully applied to have the detention period of two Englishmen arrested on Wednesday morning also extended by 72 hours.