DUBLIN, Feb 17 (AFP) - Seven people have been arrested in the Republic of Ireland over possible involvement in a massive bank robbery in Northern Ireland, blamed on the IRA paramilitary group, Irish police said on Thursday.
As well as the arrests in Dublin and in Cork, a city in the southwest of Ireland, officers also seized a large amount of cash, a police source told AFP.
Police found around two million pounds (2.9 million euros, 3.8 million dollars) at an apartment in Cork, of which 60,000 pounds was in notes issued by the Northern Bank, which was raided on December 20, the source said.
The robbery at the Northern Bank`s main cash depot in Belfast saw robbers take 26.5 million pounds, believed to be Britain`s biggest-ever heist.
Police in Dublin confirmed the arrest of six men and a woman and the seizure of "a substantial amount of cash", adding that the seven had been held under anti-terrorism legislation.
However, the police statement did not immediately link the arrests to the Northern Bank raid.
The robbery in December plunged into crisis moves to restore Northern Ireland`s suspended power-sharing government, which had come close to success shortly beforehand.
Northern Irish police, as well politicians in London and Dublin and the independent body which monitors the activities of Northern Irish paramilitary groups, all accused the Irish Republican Army of carrying out the raid.
This was vehemently denied by the IRA, Northern Ireland`s main Catholic paramilitary group. Its political wing, Sinn Fein, which is now the region`s biggest Catholic party, has slammed the accusation as slanderous.
According to Ireland`s RTE state radio, one of the arrested men was a Sinn Fein politician.
The IRA responded to the accusations by announcing it was withdrawing a long-standing offer to put its remaining weapons caches beyond use.
The Northern Bank responded to the raid by withdrawing from circulation all the notes of the types stolen, replacing them with a new design.
02/17/2005 16:34 GMT - AFP