Police are not ruling out paramilitary involvement in an armed robbery in Co Tyrone.
Thieves threatened a man with a gun at the North West Liquor Store in Omagh on Tuesday before tying him up and stealing a significant quantity of cigarettes.
One of the thieves, posing as a Royal Mail employee gained entry to the premises before threatening a man at gunpoint and binding his hands and feet.
Three other gang members then arrived and began loading a white Transit van with cigarettes worth £100,000.
The van was last seen driving away from the store in the direction of Omagh town centre.
The man was eventually able to free his legs and ran out into the road to summon help, his hands still tied. Police have appealed for the drivers of two other vans in the area at the time to come forward. Insp George Douglas said it was possible paramilitaries were responsible for the robbery.
"We're open-minded on that at this time," he said. This is the latest in a series of significant robberies in the North.
On Sunday another armed gang burst into a north Belfast home and held a family of four hostage. The four-member gang took a man and two children, aged three and six, to a derelict house at a remote location in Antrim as the woman was kept at the family home.
The next day the woman was forced to go and empty the contents of a safe at the post office she runs with her husband before he and the children were released. The gang made off with a substantial amount of money.
Last month, in Downpatrick, Co Down, a mother and two children were held hostage while their father was taken to the security firm where he worked. The gang escaped with £500,000.
Three people were held hostage overnight in Castlederg, Co Tyrone, last month while a supermarket employee was ordered to take money from the shop safe.
Earlier this month, a mother and child were held hostage in Ardoyne, in north Belfast, while her husband was taken to a warehouse. The gang escaped with a haul of cigarettes