LATEST: Footage released of Navy ship tracking vessel at centre of €30 million drugs bust

The Defence Forces have released surveillance footage from this week's 'Joint Task Force Drugs Interdiction Operation' which resulted in the seizure of cocaine worth more than €30 million in County Cork.

Four men remain in garda custody arising from the seizure in the Courtmacsherry area during the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Around half-a-tonne of the drugs were brought ashore at Broadstrand and loaded into a van which was stopped by armed gardai at around 4am.

During the operation, the Air Corps' C295 maritime surveillance aircraft provided overwatch support to An Garda Síochána and Revenue officers while the L.É. William Butler Yeats patrolled off the coast in the vicinity of Courtmacsherry, around 50km south west of Cork city.

"During the operation, the L.É. William Butler Yeats was required to intercept a vessel of interest, a Rigid Hulled Inflatable Boat (RHIB) which departed from Broadstrand. Two Naval Service RHIBs were launched from the L.É. William Butler Yeats with members of the ship's armed Maritime Interdiction Team (MIT) who successfully interdicted the vessel of interest, taking control of it and the two males aboard," said a Defence Forces spokesperson.

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The occupants of the van were arrested by gardai at the scene and when the L.É. William Butler Yeats returned to the Naval Base in Haulbowline the two males who were detained on the RHIB were handed over to gardaí for arrest while the vessel of interest was handed over to Revenue to be detained.

While investigations are ongoing, video footage captured by the Air Corps' C295 during the interdiction operation, of the L.É. William Butler Yeats tracking the vessel of interest and the MIT staging on the deck of the ship has been released.

All four men are being detained at garda stations in Cork. Subject to court orders, they can be detained without charge for up to a week.