Gardaí were last night continuing to question four men in connection with the discovery of 1.5 tonnes of cannabis resin valued at €10 million.
Three of the men are Irish while the fourth is a truck driver from Valencia in Spain.
The large drugs haul was one of the biggest intercepted in the State in recent years.
A Spanish-registered vehicle was being forensically examined yesterday after it was seized when the drugs were intercepted at a commercial property at Carbury, Co Kildare, on Tuesday afternoon.
Gardaí believe the vehicle had been in the country for a number of days and that the Irish drug dealers behind the shipment had neglected to organise a drop-off point until after the shipment arrived.
The yard where the vehicle was being unloaded is owned by a man who has not come to the attention of gardaí in the past.
One of the four men being questioned by gardaí last night is from the midlands. One of the other men being held is an associate aged in his 20s.
The fourth man being questioned is a drug dealer from the Blanchardstown area.
He has been known to gardaí for a over a decade. His associates are former members of the Dublin-based Westies gang who had become involved in a bitter dispute with two gang leaders before they disappeared in Spain last year.
The four men were being held last night at Garda stations in Newbridge and Kildare town under Section 2 of the Criminal Justice Drug Trafficking Act and can be held without charge for seven days.
The arrests followed a joint operation between the Garda National Drugs Unit, National Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the Customs Enforcement Agency.
