County Meath shooting: 55-year-old man killed while sitting in his car

The shooting happened around 7.45pm at the Old Mill housing estate on Fairyhouse Road

The latest offence took place at a Tesco store in the Rathmines area of the city on 8 July (Getty)

A 55-year-old man has been killed after he was shot several times as he sat in his car in Ratoath, County Meath.

The man was allegedly a well-known criminal heavily involved in cigarette smuggling and associated with former-criminal Gerry "The Monk" Hutch, the Irish Independent reported.

Gerry Hutch was notorious for being one of Ireland's most prolific bank robbers, but he said he quit crime after being released from jail in 1985.

The shooting happened around 7.45pm, at the Old Mill housing estate on Fairyhouse Road.

The man's body remains at the scene, which has been cordoned off by Gardai. Detectives are investigating the shooting and have appealed to anyone who was in the area to contact them.

It is currently unknown whether the shooting is connected to the ongoing dispute between the Hutch and Kinahan criminal groups, which claimed two lives in Dublin earlier this year.