Gardaí believe they have foiled an attempt by a criminal gang to kidnap a man in Cork in order to extort money from him for a dissident republican organisation.
Seven men have been arrested in counties Cork, Kerry and Limerick.
The garda operation leading to the arrests has been ongoing for several months.
A garda forensic team spent the morning examining the scene where two of the seven men were arrested at Lovers Walk in Cork city.
The arrests came during a night of intense garda activity in the Montenotte/Lovers Walk area of the city.
Four men in total were arrested here.
A number of weapons and other paraphernalia are also understood to have been recovered during the operation.
Follow-up searches continued throughout the night and these resulted in the arrests of a further two men in Kerry and another man in Limerick.
All seven range in age from their 20s to their 50s.
Six of them are being detained at garda stations in Cork city while the seventh is being held at Henry Street garda station in Limerick.
All are being questioned about dissident republican activity.
Detectives were clearly acting on intelligence when they moved in last night here in Cork, in Kerry and in Limerick.
This intelligence was gathered during a covert operation involving local detectives and the garda national support services over several months.
Gardaí believe they have foiled a kidnap plot which was planned by a dissident republican criminal gang to fund its activities.
