A Chief Superintendent has told the Special Criminal Court he believes a 33-year-old Louth man was a member of the INLA at the time of his arrest.

A Special Branch detective told a court today that two men were detained by armed detectives after their car crashed into an official garda car as they tried to escape from a pursuing patrol car.

A Dundalk man was arrested after the car in which he was a passenger tried to drive through a garda roadblock, the Special Criminal Court heard today.