Eight people have been arrested over the murder of 23-year-old father of one Tom Ward in Sligo in August.
The five men and three women are being questioned under Section 30 of the Offences against the State Act at various Garda stations in Sligo and Leitrim. There is now a total of 10 people in custody over the murder.
On Monday, gardaí arrested seven men in dawn swoops in counties Mayo and Kildare. Five were arrested in Ballinrobe and one in Celbridge. The men, aged between 18 and early 40s, were taken to three different Garda stations in the west.
They were questioned in Sligo, Castlebar, Carrick-on-Shannon and Manorhamilton. Five of these were later released, while two of them remain in custody.
Mr Ward, who had a two-year-old daughter and was from Cranmore, Sligo town, died after being hit with the back of an axe as he sat in a van outside his parents' home in nearby Joe McDonnell Drive on August 13th.
An axe, slash-hooks and a number of balaclavas were recovered from an abandoned car four miles from the scene of the murder.