Gardai investigating the armed robbery of a security lorry in Co Kerry last month have recovered two Garda uniforms used by the robbers at the home of a figure involved in so-called vigilantism.
The uniforms were recovered last Saturday after two men were arrested and two houses searched after a Garda surveillance operation.
Sources close to the investigation said that figures with both IRA and criminal connections were involved in the robbery. Six arrests have taken place so far and gardaí have questioned men from Kerry, Cork, Clare and Dublin.
All were arrested under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act, the legislation usually used for detaining people suspected of terrorist or paramilitary-related crime.
After Saturday's arrests, a third was arrested on Sunday, another on Tuesday last and two men were arrested and taken to Listowel Garda station yesterday.
The robbery took place near Abbeyfeale on the Kerry-Limerick border on Thursday, February 28th. Six men, a number of them armed and two in Garda uniform, blocked the road and forced the driver of the Securicor Omega Express truck to stop and open the articulated lorry which was carrying more than a thousand parcels.
The driver was tied up and put in the back of a stolen Volvo car which was then driven to a forest at Lyracrumpane. This is the same place where the Kerry IRA took a Dublin man, who they claimed was involved in drug dealing, on December 7th last and assaulted him.
The security lorry was opened in the forest and then abandoned. It is understood that parcels were taken but gardaí are withholding information about what was taken in order to assist their investigation.
The driver of the lorry was said to have been badly shaken by the experience.
He was tied hand and foot and slightly injured when the Volvo used to abduct him crashed near the forest.
The security lorry was transporting parcels from Dublin to Tralee.
Gardaí have appealed for help from anyone who was on the road between 5.30 a.m. and 8.30 a.m. on the morning of the robbery and who noticed anything to contact Listowel Garda station.