POLICE ARREST MAN LINKED TO BRUTAL DRUG MURDERS

Dutch detectives will today seek to extend the detention of a man arrested
in connection with the brutal slaying of three young Irishmen a fortnight
ago.

The unidentified man was arrested in Wassanaar, a small town seven miles
outside the Hague, shortly after 9pm on Wednesday and questioned throughout
yesterday by police.

Today, he will be taken before a judge at a private hearing when police
will seek to try and hold him until Monday. Then, three judges can extend
his detention for another 30 days.

Maintaining its tight lipped policy, the Dutch Prosecutor's Office refused
to offer the nationality of the man, or to give any information about the
circumstances surrounding his arrest.

Last night, locals in Wassanaar, a mixture of luxury detached houses on
leafy suburbs and more modest housing, said they had heard nothing about
the police operation.

Nearby, people staying in a well run, and occupied camping site - used,
according to locals, for some small scale drug dealing - claimed to be
equally in the dark.

``We don't exclude other arrests,'' said Kitty Nooy of the Prosecutor's
Office, who has been under pressure to offer more information since the
killings were first discovered in Scheveningen 10 days ago.

However, it appears that detectives are getting closer to identifying the
holder of the fifth passport found by firemen in the apartment, which had
been set alight by the killers.

The passport was listed as belonging to a Vanessa Cope from Newry, Co.
Down, though checks with the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office
indicate that no such person exists.

However, there are indications that this is a pseudonym for a woman who
left Northern Ireland on foot of an IRA warning after her drug dealer
boyfriend was murdered by the Provisional gunmen.

Wednesday's arrest by the police has failed to satisfy some members of the
Irish community in The Hague, who have been angered by the time it took to
identify the three bodies.