Dawood aide Salim Dola brought from Turkiye, in NCB net

E-PaperSubscribeSubscribeEnjoy unlimited accessSubscribe Now! Get features like Notorious international drug trafficker Salim Dola, a close aide of gangster Dawood Ibrahim, was on Tuesday brought to India from Turkiye under ‘Operation Global-Hunt’, in a development Union home minister Amit Shah termed as a “major breakthrough”. Dawood aide Salim Dola brought from Turkiye, in NCB netDola, 58, was detained by the Turkish Intelligence Agency and the Beylikduzu police in Istanbul on April 25 following inputs from Indian agencies and based on a pending Interpol Red Corner Notice (RCN) against him. “The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), in close coordination with international and Indian intelligence agencies, has secured the return of wanted drug trafficker Mohammed Salim Dola from Türkiye, under Operation Global-Hunt. He was taken into custody on his arrival at IGI Airport, New Delhi, early this morning by NCB,” the ministry of home affairs (MHA) said in a statement. Officials aware of the matter said that Dola, who had fled to the UAE from India nearly eight years ago, was trapped in Turkiye for the last two years after coming to Istanbul on a vacation in early 2024. “While he was holidaying in Turkiye, the (Interpol) red corner notice was issued in 2024. His family including his son managed to leave the country and return to the UAE but he was trapped. He had been living alone in different places of Turkiye to avoid arrest,” an official said, requesting anonymity. “After his son was deported from the UAE last year, he had stopped communicating with his aides and family members to avoid arrest.” Over the years, Dola established a major transnational drug trafficking syndicate spanning a number of countries in West Asia, Africa and Europe, the MHA statement said. “His two-decade long criminal antecedents include direct involvement in cases involving multiple high-value seizures of Heroin, Charas, Mephedrone, Mandrax and Methamphetamine in Maharashtra and Gujarat,” it added. Dola, a resident of Dongri in Mumbai, consistently served as a bulk supplier to downstream distribution networks in India, the MHA said. “This effort exemplifies close cooperation and coordinated action between the authorities in Türkiye, INTERPOL and Indian agencies,” it added. In a post on X, home minister Shah stressed on zero tolerance against the narco syndicate. “Under Modi government’s mission to ruthlessly smash drug cartels, our anti-narcotics agencies have extended their claws across borders through a robust network of global agencies. Now, no matter where they hide, no place is safe for drug kingpins,” he said. Mumbai police officers said that Dola, who was a close friend of late underworld don Iqbal Mirchi, a close associate of fugitive don Dawood Ibrahim, handled the drugs “business” of the D gang, and his family members were central figures in the drug manufacturing and peddling business that spanned Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana. Dola was arrested by DRI, Mumbai Police, and NCB before he jumped bail and fled the country sometime in 2018, they added. Upon his arrival at the Delhi airport on Tuesday morning, NCB arrested Dola. He was briefly questioned at the bureau’s headquarters in South Delhi’s RK Puram, officials said, adding that a team from NCB’s Mumbai zone reached Delhi to take Dola on transit remand. “Salim Ismail Dola is a Mumbai resident, who is wanted in cases by NCB, DRI, Mumbai and Gujarat police... The NCB had got a red-corner notice issued in 2024 through INTERPOL. The operations to bring such fugitives and kingpins to face trial in India is underway,” NCB’s deputy director general (Operations) Neeraj Kumar Gupta said. “A Delhi court sent him in two-day transit remand for Mumbai where he will again be produced before a competent court for custody,” he added. (With inputs from Abhishek Sharan in Mumbai) Prawesh Lama covers crime, policing, and issues of security in Delhi. Raised in Darjeeling, educated in Mumbai, he also looks at special features on social welfare in the National Capital.