Four men with republican connections were among seven people arrested by gardai yesterday for questioning about the armed raid on a freight train in Co Louth last July.
During the raid a crane and its operator were hijacked and used to remove a 40-foot container holding cigarettes worth £1 million from the train, which had been forced to stop at a disused station at Dunleer.
The armed gang held three Irish Rail staff hostage and when the container had been lifted on to an articulated truck one of the hostages was forced to drive the train to Portmarnock, Co Dublin.
The men were detained under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act for the alleged possession of firearms at Dunleer on the 12th July last year. These are the first arrests by gardai in this investigation.