Car used by hitman stolen in UK 3 months before Limerick smash as cops probe planning behind gang’s €500k murder

THE car used by an assassin who died in a horror road smash was stolen in the UK, The Irish Sun on Sunday can reveal.

Gardai are investigating the plot by Axel Erick Wolfgang Liebsch Morales, 33, and another hitman to kill a criminal based in the Rathkeale area of Limerick.

And cops are now tracking the movements of the 2.0 Seat Cupra Leon from the moment it arrived in Ireland on June 5.

We can reveal that investigators in Sweden have also made an arrest as they attempt to discover the identity of the gang who recruited the contract killers.

Gardai are trawling through the Automatic Number Plate Recognition system in a bid to establish if the vehicle — fitted with false plates — stopped at any garages on the journey to Limerick.

And cops in the UK are also tracing the vehicle’s movements from the time it was stolen.

The car — registration KV12 KHP — was taken from a family home in the Kent area of London on March 24 this year.

Investigators suspect it was then stored in a lock-up before being collected by Morales — who’s from Sweden — and his sidekick.

One source said: “Gardai have now established that the car was stolen in the UK and was part of the criminal enterprise.

“If the car is identified on ANPR it could lead to further evidence being provided.

“The fact that it was stolen in March shows the level of planning that went into this planned murder.”

Investigators suspect Morales — who is linked to two other murders — and his cohort travelled here after accepting a €500,000 contract to murder an individual from the Rathkeale area.

But the mission failed when their car was involved in a collision with two other vehicles on the N21, between Abbeyfeale and Newcastle West on June 8.

Morales — originally from South America — was a passenger in the stolen car and was discovered with a SIG semi-automatic handgun and two clips of ammunition.

The crash happened when the assassins made a dangerous U-turn on the road.

Morales’ sidekick bolted from the scene and remains on the run.