The man abducted and shot by a gang of armed and masked men in Co Louth on Thursday night is believed to have been the latest victim of an extortion racket operated by dissident Republicans with links to the INLA.
He suffered gunshot wounds to both legs and was dumped on the side of the road just north of the Border.
It is understood that he had been told to pay €30,000 to the gang four weeks ago and had failed to meet the deadline.
Gardaí suspect that the gang abducted him because he did not pay the money and also as a warning to other people about the consequences of not meeting their demands.
Two years ago at least three suspected drug-dealers in the south Louth area handed over in the region of €50,000 to this gang; a fourth man who did not pay them was abducted and beaten.
It is believed that the gang consists of up to eight men who are from Dundalk or just north of the Border. They are mainly in their thirties and forties and one is a former O.C. (officer commanding) of the INLA in Dundalk who has also been linked to the "Real IRA".
In this incident, the 29-year-old man had got a telephone call to meet a prospective buyer of a car he had advertised for sale.
They met at 10 p.m. in a car-park in Monasterboice just north of Drogheda and took the car for a test drive on a country road. When they got out of the car to supposedly look under the bonnet, a white van pulled up and up to four men, all masked and carrying at least one gun, bundled the man into the van.
He was partly stripped and driven to Jonesboro in south Armagh, a short distance from the Louth border, where he was shot in both legs.
The gang threw him out of the van and left him at the side of the road. He was able to make his way to a nearby house and the occupants took him to Dromad Garda station, a short distance away.
Garda sources said they did not expect a formal statement of complaint to be made to them but they were satisfied the incident had all the hallmarks of the gang involved in the extortion of alleged drug-dealers in Louth in 2003.
Gardaí believe it was their investigation into the gang's activities that led to the extortion racket coming to a halt for some time.