Gardai recover black Mazda used in shooting

Detectives have recovered the black Mazda car used in the gangland-style assassination of a leading Dublin criminal, Gardai said today.

Seamus Hogan, believed to have been one of the biggest heroin and cocaine dealers in Dublin, died in a hail of bullets as he sat his car in the Crumlin area of the city on Saturday night.

Hogan, a former associate of the notorious Dublin criminal Martin Cahill, known as the "General", had survived two previous attempts on his life.

It is understood from garda sources the killing may have had paramilitary involvement.

The shooting took place at the Transport Club, on the junction of Clogher Road and Rutland Avenue, shortly before 9.30pm.

Two masked gunmen were waiting for Hogan and fired a number of shots at his vehicle.

It is understood he pushed his wife, who was a passenger, out of the car and attempted to drive off but died at the scene from his wounds.

A total of seven or eight shots were believed to have been fired in the attack.

Hogan, who was married with children, had previous convictions for robbery, burglary, shooting at gardai and possession of firearms.

He was awaiting trial at the Special Criminal Court on charges of possessing cannabis resin.

In the 1980s, Hogan was a spokesman for Concerned Criminals Action Committee.

The clashes between that organisation, comprised of a group of Dublin criminals, and the Concerned Parents anti-drugs movement, were depicted in the John Boorman film The General.

Cahill was assassinated by the IRA in 1994.

In an earlier attempt on Hogan’s life, in September 1998, he was shot in the back as he walked home from a pub in Crumlin.

Hogan’s body was taken to the city morgue in Marino where a postmortem examination is due to be carried out later today.

His car has been removed for technical examination.