Mumbai, April 25: The detention of Salim Dola (58), a drug lord heading the narcotics smuggling vertical of the Dawood Ibrahim empire, in Istanbul by the Turkish authorities is seen as a major blow for the don based in Karachi.
"However, I won't be surprised if the Erdogan government releases Dola, given the strong ties between Ankara and Istanbul. And since Dawood is firmly embedded in the Pakistani power establishment, he might use his clout to prevent Dola being extradited to India," a senior security official told FPJ on Saturday.
Concerns over extradition and disclosures
Dola, who was detained following an Interpol alert issued at the behest of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), is the proverbial man who knows too much.
If he is brought to India and put through the wringer, he may disclose the fine details of Dawood's narcotics operation, which the don would like to avoid at all costs.
From car thief to narcotics operator
Dola, a resident of Dongri in central Mumbai, started his career in crime as a car thief and later joined the drug smuggling operations of narcotics king Iqbal Mirchi, who worked under the protective umbrella of Dawood.
Following Mirchi's death after a heart attack in London in 2013, Dawood tasked Jabeer Motiwala, a Pakistani, to head his narcotics operations. However, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) sought Motiwala's extradition from London since he was wanted in the U.S. for class A drug importation, money laundering and links to Dawood.
After a hotly contested extradition case in London, the FBI mysteriously withdrew its extradition application and Motiwala returned to Karachi in 2021. But since he was in extremely poor health, Dawood handpicked Salim Dola to operate the narcotics trade.
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Drug manufacturing network exposed
Dola and his associates, which included his son Taher, started manufacturing mephedrone (MD) in units based in Sangli, Satara, and Surat. Details of his operations surfaced following the interrogation of Mohammed Salim Shaikh, who was extradited from Dubai last year along with Taher.
The raid on the Sangli factory yielded MD worth Rs 250 crore in the international market. Since then, Dola has been on the run. He is known to have a Pakistani passport, which enabled him to enter and exit that country at will. He is also known to be the main supplier of drugs to several celebrities in Bollywood.
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