Police said they arrested seven people, including an official from the IRA-linked Sinn Fein party, and seized millions in cash Thursday suspected stolen two months ago from a Belfast bank, a crime that badly damaged Northern Ireland's peace process. Police raided a property near the southwest city of Cork, arrested three men and a woman, and recovered a reported £2 million ($3.8 million). They could not immediately confirm whether the money matched records of the notes stolen from the Northern Bank in Belfast. Earlier, police said they raided another property in Dublin, where they arrested three men and seized at least £60,000. They also could not confirm whether this was money stolen from the bank, but confirmed that some of the money was in the Northern Ireland's own brand. The two connected raids, police said, were targeting suspected money-laundering operations of the outlawed Irish Republican Army. The seizures and arrests may represent the first major breakthrough in months of police work to identify the gang responsible for stealing £26.5 million robbery from the Northern Bank on December 20 -- the biggest cash theft in history.
| Well, there went the IRA's IRA. |