Gardaí investigating an extortion attempt in which a family was held at gunpoint early yesterday believe it was a freelance operation carried out by a three-man gang with close ties to the Provisional IRA.
Two of the gang held Cork businessman Gary O'Donovan, his pregnant wife Katie and their four children for close to five hours at their home at Mount Oval, Rochestown, before Mr O'Donovan managed to escape and raise the alarm.
Gardaí arrived at the scene and were preparing for a siege situation.
However, they were able to arrest the two men as they left the home.
Detectives also arrested a third man in a follow-up operation in Dublin.
Mr O'Donovan suffered a wound to the head after he was struck with a handgun, and Ms O'Donovan was treated for shock.
All four children slept through the ordeal.
According to Garda sources, one of those arrested in Cork, a Belfast man, has served 14 years in jail in the North for the attempted murder of an RUC officer in the 1980s as well as a period in jail in the Netherlands following firearms offences there.
He was released under the Belfast Agreement in 1998 and about 18 months ago moved to Cork.
A second man, a republican who was arrested in Dublin yesterday, escaped from Crumlin Road prison in Belfast shortly after his conviction in 1981 for unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition and false imprisonment.
The man, who now lives in Co Louth, has also been targeted by the Cab, which served him with a tax bill of almost £135,000 in the mid-1990s, alleging he had benefited from criminal activity in the Co Louth area.
A brother of a leading member of the Provisional IRA in Dublin, he fell foul of the organisation more recently and was disciplined for carrying out a series of racketeering operations for his own benefit.
The third member of the gang, who was arrested in Cork, is a native of Dundalk.
While he is known to have republican sympathies, he has never been convicted of any paramilitary-related offences.
The consensus among senior officers last night was that the operation was probably carried out by the three-man gang for their own benefit.
"They're undoubtedly a Provo crew, but I doubt if it was sanctioned by the Provos," said one Garda source.
"Although there was some planning put into it, it wasn't the most disciplined of operations. It's more likely that they were on a solo mission for their own benefit."
