Spanish police are investigating possible links between a seizure of cocaine in Malaga and the murder of Dublin drug dealer Paddy Doyle (27) near the city yesterday.
Two Irishmen remain at large today 24 hours after escaping the gun attack on the Costa del Sol in which Doyle was shot dead.
Paddy Doyle
Detectives are examining a link between the shooting and the seizure of 115kg of cocaine in the area on the same day.
Eleven people were arrested in the operation, and it is understood gardaí are examining whether at least one of them had an Irish passport.
It is reported locally that an Irishman and six Britons were among those detained after the discovery of the cocaine.
British police believe the drugs came from Colombia and were due for distribution by drug gangs throughout Europe.
Spanish police investigating the murder want to question Dubliners Freddie Thompson (27) and Gary Hutch (26) who were travelling with Doyle when he was shot.
A car pulled up alongside their 4X4 in Estepona near Marbella at around 2pm local time, and at least five shots were fired into the vehicle causing Hutch, who was driving, to lose control and crash into a lamp post.
As Doyle attempted to escape from the front passenger side of the vehicle he was shot at least two times in the head, witnesses said.
Thompson, who had been in the back seat, was not injured, but Hutch was hurt, though not apparently seriously.
The ambushed 4x4 vehicle
Doyle, with an address at Portland Place, Dublin 1, was a major drug dealer and member of one of two drugs gangs from the Crumlin/Drimnagh area of Dublin whose feuding has led to 10 deaths since 2001.
He was suspected of involvement in at least one of the killings - the murder of Noel Roche (27) in Clontarf north Dublin in 2005.
Doyle left Ireland in 2005, and gardaí believe his killing is more likely to be linked to a dispute he had with local drug dealers rather than an extension of the feud that saw an attempt on the life of Martin Foley, also known as the Viper, in Kimmage two weeks ago.
Hutch served six years in jail for robbing nearly €40,000 worth of jewellery and cash from a businessman in 2001. He is the nephew of former Dublin criminal Gerry "the Monk" Hutch.
Thompson was arrested in the Netherlands in 2006 when cocaine valued at €600,000 and six handguns were found in his rented apartment. The charges were later dropped.