Belfast, Northern Ireland ? One of Northern Ireland’s most high-profile Protestant militants was shot to death outside his home Tuesday night, more than six months after he was ousted by his outlawed group.

Two gunmen fired several shots at Jim Gray after he answered his door in Protestant east Belfast, his longtime power base, police said.

No group claimed responsibility for his assassination, but a previous assassination attempt in 2002 came during a feud among Protestant militants involved in Belfast’s thriving drug trade.

Gray, 43, had been free on bail while awaiting trial on charges of money laundering, concealing stolen property and other offenses connected to his past ownership of two Belfast pubs and other property.

Gray had been one of the six regional commanders of the outlawed Ulster Defense Assn., Northern Ireland’s largest outlawed group, until March 30, when colleagues ousted him. Police arrested him a week later in a car containing more than $60,000 in cash.

The UDA, which has an estimated 2,000 members in this British territory of 1.7 million, was founded in 1971 as a loose umbrella for neighborhood vigilante groups in working-class Protestant areas.