The west Belfast property where gangland enforcer Kevin Conway was gunned down was targeted in a suspected pipe bomb attack last year.
The 26-year-old was shot multiple times in a property in the Rossnareen Park area of west Belfast on Tuesday.
A father-of-two, Mr Conway was a well-known enforcer and debt collector for the Co Armagh based drugs gang known as The Firm.
It has now emerged that the west Belfast property where he lost his life this week was targeted in August last year.
At the time the PSNI said that it had received a report that a “suspicious object” had been left in the Rosnareen Park area.
The area was sealed off and the British army bomb squad was called to examine an object “which was later declared to be a viable device”.
![A bearded man dressed in a shirt and tie smokes a cigarette](https://www.irishnews.com/resizer/v2/PWGVYCQINJFS7A66FKDL2NQCNY.jpg?auth=be4d7d6041036e00537867536e629b2d45f06399d793fe0b82aff8dc97bf95ad&width=800&height=450)
The device was removed from the scene for forensic examination.
Mr Conway was shot dead almost a year to the day after Lurgan man Shane Whitla was also gunned down in Lurgan.
He was one of three men charged in relation to the Whitla murder, which took place on January 12 last year, and was alleged to have lured the victim to his “execution”.
Prosecutors have claimed Mr Whitla was killed over a suspected drug debt to The Firm.
Mr Conway was granted bail for a second time in relation to the Whitla murder last July after he had earlier absconded from police and later moved to west Belfast.
He was originally bailed on February 20 last year, and placed under conditions which included a prohibition on accessing the internet.
He was later arrested at the property for the alleged violation but allowed to retrieve a packet of cigarettes and have a smoke at the front door, a court later heard.
He then ran off in just his socks, chased by police officers who were unable to capture him.
Conway handed himself in at a PSNI station two days later and his bail was revoked.