Officials are inspecting around 300 animals after a north-south Irish raid on a border farm suspected of being involved in livestock rustling.
The police were investigating livestock theft and carried out searches in counties Armagh and Monaghan.
More than 20 PSNI officers were involved in the searches which centred around two sheds.
Around 35 cows and 15 sheep were found at the farm in south Armagh, while 250 sheep were discovered on a nearby farm across the border.
'Growing concern'
PSNI Inspector Leslie Badger told the BBC: "You have to consider your security when you are doing these operations. It’s not only the terrorism element to Northern Ireland, but also the criminality element - we have some criminals out there who would try to frustrate police actions and disrupt us.
"We rely heavily on our partners in the Republic of Ireland, An Garda Síochána, and it’s with their help we can go in here - a property that straddles both sides of the border.
He said there has been a 'growing concern' amongst the farming community that livestock is being routinely stolen by criminal gangs.
In this operation police were acting under specific intelligence and that type of interaction from the community is vital in these types of operations.
"The impact of this livestock and machinery theft has a detrimental effect on our farming industry and I know from speaking with farmers who have been affected by this type of crime, it costs farmer’s money and also great inconvenience," he said.
"The PSNI has been successful in recent weeks targeting specific areas where animal thefts have been regularly occurring and after their actions, levels of crime reduced noticeably."
