The latest gangland murder victim had forged allegiances with one of Limerick's criminal gangs and was arrested with notorious criminal Liam Keane for threatening to shoot two motorists for whistling at a woman.

Twenty-six-year-old Anthony Cannon was shot at 3.30pm on Friday at St Mary's Avenue West in Ballyfermot, Dublin, after he had spent the afternoon drinking in a local pub.

Cannon, who was wearing a bulletproof vest after being warned by gardaí that his life was in danger, ran down the road to escape his killer, who was on a motorbike.

Cannon, originally from Robert Street in Dublin 8, was a senior member of a Drimnagh/Crumlin-based drugs gang led by a man who is serving a lengthy jail sentence.

He had a number of criminal convictions for the possession and distribution of small amounts of drugs and criminal damage. He was suspended from driving for 10 years in 2008 for careless driving and giving a false name to gardaí. He was due in court next week on public-order and assault charges.

It is suspected that a rival gang led by criminal 'Fat' Freddie Thompson was behind Cannon's murder. His killing was the 15th direct or indirect murder as a result of a feud which has been ongoing since 2001.

On 21 April 2007, Cannon and Limerick criminal Liam Keane attended a birthday party at a pub in Crumlin, Dublin. At one point they stood outside with some women, smoking cigarettes.

Two men in their early 20s pulled up in a car across the road and began to whistle at the females. Cannon and Keane went to the car. The latter produced a Glock 9mm pistol, pointing it into the vehicle. Cannon said they were going to kill the two men.

One of the girls at the party ran across the road, telling the pair not to open fire and persuading them to go back into the pub. The two motorists apologised profusely and drove away.

Cannon and Keane were both arrested, but there was not enough evidence to charge either man and they were released without charge.

Cannon had forged allegiances with senior members of the Keane gang and the Dublin and Limerick outfits now cooperate on large-scale drug and firearms deals thanks to him.

On 26 May 2008, detectives from Crumlin garda station raided a house in Walkinstown and recovered €1m worth of heroin and €37,000 in cash. Three members of the same family were in the process of being arrested when Anthony Cannon, using a key, let himself into the house.

He was immediately detained. Gardaí believed that he was there to collect the drugs. He was charged under sections 3 and 15 of the Misuse of Drugs Act but the charges were subsequently dropped because he was not in the house when gardaí first arrived.

Last month, a 26-year-old senior member of the Thompson gang was asleep on a couch in the front room of his house in Drimnagh when a gunman fired two shots from a car and sped off.

The man was shot in the leg despite the fact that he had paid €6,000 the previous week for reinforced glass. Anthony Cannon is widely believed to have been the gunman and Friday's murder is thought to have been in retaliation for that incident.