Two of the men on trial in the biggest drugs case in the history of the State walked for hours across country and hid for two nights in a shed after seeing dozens of packages of drugs floating in the sea off the coast of West Cork last July.

THE jury in the biggest drugs trial in the history of the State will commence their seventh week at Cork Circuit Criminal Court on Monday knowing the end of the case is looming.

A former Detective Sergeant in the London Metropolitan drug squad is currently in custody in England on charges of trafficking 200 kilos of drugs six weeks ago – and this man is a brother of one of the men on trial in the €440m cocaine case in Cork, it emerged today.

One of the men on trial in Cork's €440m cocaine case challenged phone records today and claimed that the prosecution did not even believe that the accused bought or ever used the particular phone.

DNA evidence from a dental floss stick found in a jeep allegedly connected to the €440m-cocaine seizure was matched today with one of the accused who is on trial.

SOME "idiot" put diesel instead of petrol into the powerful engines on the rib boat found at the scene of the biggest drugs seizure in the history of the state, a jury was told.

An abandoned RIB-type boat was found at a pier in West Cork the day after the biggest drugs seizure in the history of the state in another bay in the area, one of the central investigating officers testified today on the seventh day of the trial.

The man who emerged from the sea in West Cork on the morning that €440m worth of cocaine was found floating in choppy waters was given assistance at a local farmhouse and told the farmer there was no need to alert the rescue services - a judge and jury was told today.

THREE Englishmen have pleaded not guilty to charges relating to the seizure of more than €100 million worth of cocaine off the coast of west Cork last summer.

ALMOST 400 witnesses have made statements to gardaí in the case of the biggest drugs haul in Ireland, it emerged in court yesterday.

TIGHT security was the order of the day at Cork Circuit Criminal Court yesterday for the first appearance of four men arrested in the wake of the biggest drugs seizure in the history of the State, which was valued at €107 million.

MORE than 30 gardaí, several armed, cordoned off a courthouse in Cork yesterday as a fourth man appeared on charges relating to the biggest drugs haul in the history of the State.