Mr John Walsh, the livestock dealer who imported foot-and-mouth infected sheep into Ireland, returned to Dublin last night and was interviewed by gardai.
Mr Walsh travelled on a flight from the north of England where he has been staying since news broke in February of a shipment of around 300 infected sheep to a farm in Meigh, south Armagh.
Officers from the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB), which has served him with a tax demand understood to be around £300,000, met him at Dublin Airport last night.
The Garda, RUC and British police are investigating Mr Walsh's activities prior to the outbreak of the disease at Meigh.
Garda investigations have led to two major livestock smugglers living just inside the Border in south Armagh. In the past two months both men have transferred significant sums from bank accounts in the Republic to accounts in Northern Ireland to avoid being seized by the CAB.
In one instance, it is understood £250,000 was moved from a bank in the Midlands to a bank in Northern Ireland.
Two CAB detectives met Mr Walsh in the north of England two weeks ago and served him with the tax demand.
It is understood Mr Walsh (50) owns a farm of approximately 140 acres at Clareen, Co Offaly, five miles from Birr. It is also understood his land holdings and other property are worth at least £1 million but there are borrowings and a mortgage.
Mr Walsh bought the consignment of infected sheep from Carlisle Mart and brought the animals to a farm belonging to Mr Maurice Collins at Meigh, in south Armagh, on Sunday, February 18th. News of the foot-and-mouth infection in Britain did not break until three days later and Mr Walsh was unaware of any infection threat.
Police and agriculture officials on both sides of the Border have had difficulty finding out what happened to the shipment of lambs imported by Mr Walsh and his associates.
Mr Walsh has denied he knowingly committed any fraud and said he had never been registered for VAT.