An Australian underworld figure who moved to Greece and opened a security business and who was gunned down outside his home may have been shot by an Albanian contract killer as part a growing mob war in Athens, the Sydney Morning Herald said.

Without indicating how it came by the information, the paper also said Greek authorities knew of John Macris’ criminal history when he was allowed to move to the country at the start of the decade and that while he wasn’t known to be involved in any wrongdoing that there are suspicions his death may have been linked to other shootings of gangsters.

It is the first major outbreak of violence in three years in the country’s underworld, which the Greeks call the World of the Night, the paper said, with criminal gangs able to use the country’s vast coastline to bring in drugs without detection.

Contract killings in Greece’s underworld are known to have been previously carried out by hired hitmen from Albania, who use two or three cars or motorbikes to flee Greece immediately after carrying out the hit, the paper said.

Authorities were said to be probing whether he was also targeted because he had opened a security business, which could be a money-laundering front, the report added. His home was equipped with surveillance cameras outside which showed the shooting but despite his business, he had no bodyguards or other protection for himself.