FIVE MEN arrested by gardaí investigating aggressive debt collecting practices in the building trade in Dublin have been released without charge.
A file on the allegations is being prepared for the DPP.
The five, including two builders based in Dublin, were arrested on Tuesday morning during searches at five addresses in Dublin, Kildare and Meath.
The men, aged from 28 to 77 years, were questioned about the alleged hiring by the two builders of criminals to collect debts owed to them.
Gardaí are investigating if threats were made when money was being demanded.
In one case in south Dublin the car of a man who owed money was destroyed in a suspected arson attack.
Three of the men arrested are known to gardaí.
The alleged ringleader is a man in his 60s who has long been involved in the drugs trade and was previously a businessman of some note.
He is believed to have supplied finance to a notorious drugs gang in Finglas, Dublin, so they could buy large quantities of drugs.
All five men were arrested on Tuesday under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act.
They were detained at garda stations in south Dublin as part of an operation led by the Organised Crime Unit. They were released yesterday.