Gardaí investigating the discovery of €100 million worth of cocaine in west Cork have contacted British police in an attempt to track down two members of a six-man drugs gang whom they suspect have fled back to to the UK.
Two other men were arrested yesterday near Schull. They had been spotted near Dunlough Pier early on Monday morning.
Meanwhile, gardaí have been granted a 72-hour extension to the detention of a 22-year-old man arrested on Monday afternoon to allow them to question him further.
Chief Supt Kevin Ludlow told Macroom District Court that gardaí had sealed off a house at Kilcrohane on the Sheep's Head peninsula and seized items including satellite communication and navigation equipment which they believe is linked to the operation.
Chief Supt Ludlow said gardaí were still trying to establish the identity of the arrested man and they were satisfied that the original name that he had given them, and the Irish passport bearing that name which he was carrying, were false.
The name and address he gave belonged to a child who died on the day that he was born in 1985 and his Irish passport had been obtained by a non-existent British firm of solicitors, Chief Supt Ludlow said.
Gardaí are also liaising with police forces in Spain, South Africa, and the US to try establish the identity of a man in his 40s who is currently receiving treatment at Bantry General Hospital. He claims he is a South African living in Britain.
It is understood that the man, who was rescued from the sea by Castletownbere lifeboat on Monday morning, was due to undergo surgery on his trachea yesterday at Bantry General Hospital where he remains under armed guard.
A HSE South spokeswoman said he remained in a comfortable condition at the hospital and it was expected he would be arrested under drug-trafficking legislation and questioned by gardaí as soon as he was fit to be discharged.
Yesterday's arrest of two more men came at about 9.10am when they were spotted walking along a road at Gubbeen near Schull. They jumped over a ditch to try and flee the gardaí were but quickly arrested and brought to Bantry station.
Gardaí believe that they had been living rough on the Mizen peninsula.
More than 50 gardaí have been involved in cordoning off the peninsula through a series of checkpoints over the past two days.
Both men are in their 40s and from Britain. One of the men is second-generation Irish and has strong family links with Kilcrohane on the Sheep's Head peninsula where he would have visited regularly.
Gardaí believe that the men came to west Cork about three or four weeks ago as part of a group of six Englishmen saying they were involved in a diving expedition.
It is understood that gardaí are looking at three houses in the area where the men stayed, while they have also carried out inquiries at a local hotel where they believe another member of the gang was based in the run-up to the smuggling operation.
It was unclear last night whether the two remaining gang members had left west Cork or whether they managed to make it back to Britain after the mission went wrong.
