Detectives investigating a £200,000 robbery from the Boots chemist outlet in Belfast city centre yesterday afternoon have shifted their suspicions away from the IRA.
The Provisionals were linked to the raid which saw two employees' families held hostage because similar tactics to the multi-million pound Northern Bank heist were used.
But while police have yet to blame anyone, it is understood that an IRA operation is not a major line of inquiry.
Police may instead be scouring the underworld networks for possible clues to the crime gang behind a carefully planned theft.
The store reopened today after forensic teams examined the premises on Donegall Place where the robbery was carried out.
While two families were held captive at their homes in the south and west of the city overnight, the staff members were ordered to go into work yesterday and clear out all cash. The money was put in sports bags and given to gang members at a nearby branch of Alliance and Leicester Building society.
The handover, in front of early morning shoppers, took place just yards from the scene of the audacious December raid on the Northern Bank's HQ, when £26.5 million was seized from the vaults.
With question marks also surrounding alarm systems in place, Democratic Unionist MP Sammy Wilson claimed the operation was almost a mirror image of the bank heist blamed on the Provos by security chiefs and the British and Irish governments.