The arrest yesterday of Mr Martin Ferris, Sinn Féin's general election candidate in Kerry North, brings to six the number of Sinn Féin members arrested for questioning about an alleged vigilante abduction in early December.
In all, 10 people have been questioned in connection with the incident, which happened in the Castleisland.
Mr Ferris was arrested near his home in Ardfert while on his way towards Tralee at around 9.30 a.m. His arrest was not altogether surprising, his party colleagues in Kerry said later.
"Bearing in mind the scale of what has been happening, it hasn't come as a total surprise," Mr Donal Cusack, the party's PRO in Kerry North, said.
The investigation into the alleged abduction and beating of a Co Kerry man has involved members of the Special Branch in Co Kerry.
Sinn Féin and Mr Ferris have denied any involvement in the abduction of the man on December 7th, which was claimed by a group calling itself Concerned Parents Against Drugs.
The man was taken to a remote area and beaten, and his car was burned out. A quantity of drugs was later found at the scene after the Kerryman newspaper was alerted by the group.
Late last week Mr Ferris said the constant arrest of his campaign workers was interfering with his election campaign.
He called for an end to "the campaign of vilification" by other parties and urged them to deal with the issues. They had concentrated on "frightening people away from Sinn Féin," he said.
"I am trying to canvass. Solicitors have to be organised. Families have to be brought to Killarney," Mr Ferris said last week.
Sinn Féin party workers in Kerry said yesterday it was "business as usual" and they were continuing with their canvass.
In 1984 Mr Ferris, who is now 46, was caught on board the Marita Ann trawler, which was bringing seven tonnes of arms towards the Kerry coast.
He was released in 1994 after serving 10 years in prison for his part in the gun-running.
He has since been elected to both urban and county council seats and achieved a high first-preference vote in the 1997 general election.
In the local elections in 1999 Mr Ferris won the second-highest number of votes in the Tralee area to win a seat on Kerry County Council.