Irish police have arrested two Dutch nationals as part of an investigation into an international drugs smuggling operation. The two were among 10 men picked up during raids in Ireland on Thursday.

Six of the other men are from Spain, one from Serbia and one from Ireland, the Irish Times reported.

The Irish police believe members of the gang moved to County Cork a week ago to prepare for the collection of a large consignment of cocaine worth tens of millions of euros off the south west coast.

They recovered four diving suits in one of the vehicles seized during last week’s raids.

A police source told the paper they are keeping an open mind about whether the men were to rendezvous with a mother ship to collect the drugs or whether they were to collect the drugs which had been dumped at sea and indicated by a marker buoy.

Last year a Danish current affairs show claimed that several trawlers from the Netherlands were being used to smuggle drugs into Denmark. 

Researchers for the TV2 programme based their claims on interviews with Dutch and Danish police, other experts and a fisherman who comes from the Netherlands and says he was involved in smuggling cocaine into Danish North Sea ports.

The drugs, the programme said, are dumped in the North Sea from container ships from South America. Wrapped in plastic and fitted with a transmitter, they are fished out by the Dutch boats and taken into Danish ports, where they are then delivered back to the Netherlands for cutting and distribution.