The Garda investigation into a suspected IRA money-laundering operation will take months to complete, the Garda Commissioner has warned.
Hundreds of gardaí in Cork, Dublin, Louth and Offaly have been involved in raids and more searches are expected to be carried out in coming days.
A Co Cork chef arrested during the investigation was charged yesterday with membership of an illegal organisation at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin.
The head of the Garda Special Branch, Det Chief Supt Philip Kelly, told the court that gardaí recovered £54,000 sterling in a washing powder box when Mr Don Bullman (30) of Fernwood Crescent, Leghanamore, Wilton, was arrested.
He added: "I suspected that the £54,000 was a money-laundering operation on behalf of the IRA."
A man in his 40s was arrested in Passage West near Cork city yesterday after he allegedly tried to burn sterling notes. Gardaí were tipped off that there were a number of burnt Northern Ireland bank-notes lying around his house.
They also recovered a quantity of ammunition for an AK47 assault rifle and cocaine in the house.
Gardaí last night released without charge three people who had been arrested in Cork city on Wednesday and Thursday for questioning about money-laundering.
A man arrested in Douglas on Wednesday night and detained at Mayfield Garda Station was released while a former Sinn Féin public representative questioned at Togher Garda Station was also released without charge.
A woman who was arrested at a house in Farran in Mid-Cork on Thursday morning was released after being questioned by detectives at the Bridewell Garda Station in Cork city.
A Garda spokesman said gardaí would prepare a file on the matter for the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Detectives at the Bridewell were last night continuing to question the woman's partner - a financial adviser at whose house in Farran officers seized £2.3 million sterling during an early-morning raid on Thursday.
Legal restrictions prevent the naming of individuals who have been arrested but not charged and prohibit drawing any inferences or conclusions arising from the only person charged.
In the Special Criminal Court, Mr Justice O'Donovan warned the media they could report what was said in court but they were not entitled to speculate in a manner which could prejudice a trial.
Police Service of Northern Ireland detectives involved in the Northern Bank robbery investigation arrived yesterday in Garda Headquarters to examine the £2.3 million seized in Farran.
However, the gardaí and PSNI cautioned against making a link between the bank robbery and this week's haul: "For now it is an investigation into money-laundering, not the Northern Bank," said one highly placed security source.
The PSNI last night recovered a sum of money at a club in south Belfast.
The cash was found at New Forge Country Club, in the New Forge Lane area of the city, and according to a PSNI statement, "initial checks would suggest that this incident is an effort to distract the police investigating the Northern Bank robbery and also to divert attention away from events elsewhere over the last two days".
A spokeswoman said that the PSNI was taking the find seriously and that the money would be examined to see if it could lead them to those who carried out the robbery.
Detectives have so far seized £2.3 million in Farran, another €54,000 outside Heuston Station in Dublin, while a man handed in a further €175,000 to Anglesea Garda Station in Cork.
He claims he was asked to mind the money by one of the individuals who were questioned by gardaí.
Searches of solicitors' and accountants' offices connected with the suspected money-laundering operation continued in Cork, Dublin, Offaly and Louth yesterday.
The Sinn Féin leader, Mr Gerry Adams, returned to Belfast from a book tour in the Basque country in Spain late last night. He is due to give an address in Strabane, Co Tyrone, this afternoon at a commemoration in the town for three IRA members.
Speaking in Tipperary yesterday, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern insisted that he did not want to exclude Sinn Féin, but the party had to realise that democracy came at a price.
A Sinn Féin spokeswoman declined to comment last night.
