A man detained at Dublin Port on Saturday is the haulier who delivered a trailer to Zeebrugge before it was found in Essex with the bodies of 39 people inside, according to Belgian authorities.

The 23-year-old Northern Irishman was identified last week but details were kept quiet, according to the Belgian public prosecutor’s office, which said that they agreed with police in Essex that British authorities would issue a European arrest warrant that enabled him to be detained.

“We were able to identify him last week in a formal way. I can’t go into detail but it was a good piece of police work,” Eric Van Der Sypt, a spokesperson for the Belgian public prosecutor’s officer, told the Guardian. “We are sure he is the driver that brought the container to the port.”

Van Der Sypt said it was his understanding that a request would be made for the man’s extradition to Britain but that Belgian authorities may also want to question him. “I think the most important thing is that the police interrogate him as soon as possible because even if he is not involved directly in the case he may have crucial information.”

The man’s lorry, a Scania, was seized as he got off a ferry in Dublin on Saturday.

The Gardaí said the man was arrested as a result of an outstanding court order for an offence in the Republic of Ireland jurisdiction and later appeared before a court in Dublin.

A spokesperson for Essex police said the force was in liaison with their Irish counterparts in relation to the arrest Dublin Port. In a statement later on Sunday, Essex police confirmed the man arrested in Dublin was a “person of interest” in the force’s murder investigation regarding the container found in Grays.



The development came as three people arrested in connection with the investigation into the deaths of the 39 people whose bodies were found in the back the container in Grays were released on bail.

They were bailed on Sunday as investigators considered the possibility that the lorry in Grays was part of a convoy carrying more than 100 people, and Vietnamese police took hair and blood samples to get DNA from relatives of people feared to be among the dead.

The three had been questioned on suspicion of manslaughter and conspiracy to traffic people. A 38-year-old man and a 38-year-old woman from Warrington were arrested in Cheshire on Friday, and a 46-year-old man from Northern Ireland was arrested at Stansted on the same day.

Essex police said the man and woman from Warrington had been released on bail until 11 November, and the man from Northern Ireland had been bailed until 13 November.

The driver of the lorry, Maurice Robinson, 25, was charged on Saturday with 39 counts of manslaughter and conspiracy to traffic people. He will appear at Chelmsford magistrates court on Monday, where he will also face 39 counts of conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration and money laundering.