Six men have been detained in a high-profile operation in St Andrews.
Armed police officers swooped on a property in the Wardlaw Gardens/Hepburn Gardens area of the university town at 4.30pm.
The men are expected to appear in court on Wednesday morning.
Specialist police officers, including armed response officers, were deployed to the area as part of an intelligence-led operation.
Eye witnesses told of a Police Scotland helicopter hovering over the residential streets, close to the university, and armed officers were seen searching nearby gardens.
Eye-witnesses reported seeing armed officers in plain clothes scaling walls and fences to the rear of a property.
A number of males were later seen being escorted away in handcuffs.
The area, populated by a number of large houses and flats, is a mix of residents and students.
Residents of the area wondered what was going on when they heard the police helicopter.
One resident of nearby Hepburn Gardens said :”I’ve been hearing a helicopter and didn’t think much about it. It’s all rather shocking. This is such a quiet and respectable area.
“But nothing would surprise me any more.”
A Police Scotland spokesman said: “We can confirm six males have been detained as part of an ongoing operation.
“They were detained in St Andrews at 16.30 hours at Wardlaw Gardens and Kennedy Gardens.
“We can confirm that armed officers were involved in the operation.”
* It’s understood that earlier in the day a separate and unrelated police operation led to the recovery of drugs and cash in St Andrews. No further information was available.
For more on this story, see Wednesday’s Courier.