Detectives in West Cork are continuing to question 10 men arrested under anti-gangland legislation after what gardaí believe was an aborted drugs delivery off the coast.
The men range in age from mid-20s to mid-50s and they can be held for up to a week.
The arrests are part of an operation put in place by gardaí in West Cork with support from a number of national units, including the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau.
All of the men were arrested yesterday morning in the Skibbereen area.
A campervan and an articulated truck are among a number of vehicles seized by gardaí and currently being forensically examined.
A high-powered RIB boat is also believed to have been used by the men.
A rendezvous with a larger vessel off the West Cork coast is believed to have been abandoned after the RIB put to sea at Tragumna, an isolated beach around 10kms from Skibbereen.
No drugs have been recovered.
Gardaí made the arrests as the men attempted to leave the area.
Most of the men were arrested in a campervan which was stopped after it was surrounded by marked and unmarked garda vehicles in the village of Leap, on the N71, 10kms east of Skibbereen.
Some of the men were seen by passing motorists and locals, lying face down on the road in the village as gardaí searched the campervan.
The driver of the articulated truck was also arrested.
Both vehicles are being forensically examined.
Gardaí have made contact with the naval service and with a number of international agencies in a bid to trace the vessel believed to have been carrying the drugs.
The 10 men are being detained at garda stations throughout West and North Cork and in Cork City.
The majority are Spanish, with a number of other nationalities among them.
One is a man who had been living in the Netherlands, and is of interest to international law enforcement agencies.
Gardaí have a maximum of seven days to question the 10 men, before they must be charged or released.
An extension of their detention will have to be sought before the district court by Saturday morning if gardaí wish to continue questioning them further.
