Spanish police yesterday arrested two Irishmen in Malaga for alleged involvement in large-scale tobacco smuggling on the Costa del Sol, apparently to finance the activities of the "Real IRA".
The two men, one a 42-year-old resident of San Pedro de Alcantara and the other a 32-year-old from nearby Benalmadena, were later taken from Malaga police headquarters to Madrid.
PSNI officers assisted the Spanish police in the operation.
In a statement last night, the PSNI said its officers "have been involved with assisting European countries as part of our investigations into serious organised crime".
One senior police source said the PSNI had been working with the Spanish authorities in an "ongoing investigation" into tobacco smuggling, which culminated in the arrest of the two men.
In its recent report, the Independent Monitoring Commission said the "Real IRA" was "violent, dangerous and ruthless" and remained involved in serious crime. Security sources say a considerable portion of its revenue comes from extortion and smuggling, particularly of cigarettes.
The "Real IRA" is believed to have been linked to several such smuggling operations, bringing cigarettes into Northern Ireland and the Republic and selling them at about £1.50 below the normal cost of a packet of 20 cigarettes. In November 2001, cigarettes valued at over £3 million were seized from a vessel in Warrenpoint, Co Down.
When Spanish police arrested the two men yesterday, they had allegedly just received a consignment of half a million cartons of cigarettes, with a street value in Spain of €1.5 million and which had been delivered by sea to a nearby port.
Police said the men were arrested as they were transporting the cigarettes to a warehouse in an industrial complex at Guadalahorce, near Malaga airport.
The cigarettes were in two container trucks, one with 250,000 cartons and the other with 248,000, and had been hidden among furniture and household goods.
The arrests are the culmination of a two-year European police investigation into arms dealing, tobacco smuggling and money laundering to finance terrorist activities. Their findings led them to the Spanish Mediterranean coast, particularly the Costa del Sol and Malaga region.