BY KEN FOY AND CONOR FEEHAN – 18 MARCH 2014 03:30 PM
GANGLAND fixer Stephen 'Dougie' Moran was negotiating with the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) over a tax bill of more than €500,000 in the months before his murder.
Moran – who gardai believe was murdered because of his close relationship with on-the-run drug dealer John Gilligan – was a long-term target of the CAB.
The CAB spent years investigating his business interests including his security company and involvement in the running of a number of pubs, as well as extortion rackets.
ASSASSIN
It has now emerged that high quality images of the shocking murder at the weekend were caught on the elaborate CCTV that Moran had in his heavily fortified home.
Senior sources have described the ruthless masked hitman as "an extremely fit individual" who hit him once in the head at very close range.
Moran (46) was returning home on Saturday at 7.30pm to his home at the end of the Lucan cul-de-sac, where he has lived for 10 years, when he was targeted by a lone gunman.
After Moran left his armoured BMW X5, his assassin pounced and fired at him four times.
"I heard four bangs one after the other, then there was silence, then there was another bang," one local resident told the Herald.
It has emerged that the killer had a five-second window of opportunity between the time that Moran got out of his bullet-proof vehicle and walked into his bullet-proof house.
A senior source said: "Gardai at this stage do not believe that this individual is the same Finglas criminal who tried to murder his mate Gilligan in a pub in Castleknock last December."
A Hyundai car believed to be the getaway vehicle was found on fire in nearby Glenvale.
Gardai are appealing for witnesses or anyone who may have seen any suspicious or unusual activity at Earlsfort View, Lucan, between 6pm and 7.30pm on Saturday, or in the days prior to the shooting, to come forward.
They also wish to speak to anyone who may have seen a vehicle being driven at speed or erratically on the Balgaddy Road, adjacent to Ballyowen Park, or a vehicle being parked or set on fire at Glenvale in Lucan.
