Five men have been arrested as part of an investigation into criminal gangs impersonating Garda officers.
Gardaí say their investigation is looking into alleged theft and fraud by members of a criminal gang, who were calling into rural homes and impersonating Gardaí.
The group claimed they were investigating a number of burglaries in the area where cash was stolen.
Members of the gang requested to compare the cash being held by the victims and then proceeded to take it away completely.
An Garda Síochána says it will never cold-call to a house and check cash in this manner.
The four men, aged in their 30s, 50s and 60s, and a woman aged in her 50s, were arrested on Tuesday morning by gardaí in the Eastern Region. They're being held at five separate Garda stations across the Eastern Region.
Officers are carrying out a number of searches are ongoing in three counties across the Dublin and Eastern Regions.
An incident room has been set up in Kilkenny Regional headquarters, which was monitoring the gang's activities across 15 counties, primarily in the east and midlands, over the last 10 months.
