Gardaí have arrested seven people after foiling a cash in transit robbery in Co Kildare.
The men were arrested shortly before 10am this morning as members of the Emergency Response Unit (ERU), the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the National Surveillance Unit intercepted the gang as they targeted the van making a delivery to an ATM at a shopping centre in Celbridge.
The raiders are being held under section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act at various Garda Stations in Kildare and Dublin.
Four vehicles and a firearm were also seized by gardaí. There were no shots fired during the operation and nobody was injured.
It is believed that the operation was part of an ongoing investigation by all three units into a Finglas-based gang.
Fine Gael spokesman for justice Charlie Flanagan welcomed the arrests this afternoon, saying: "I would like to congratulate the gardaí on their successful interception of this criminal act.
"There was clearly a high degree of intelligence work involved in this operation on the part of the gardaí.
"This heist is just another example of the daily threat posed by gangland to the security of the State."