A day after being brought to Delhi from Turkey, druglord Salim Dola lands in Mumbai
(Express Photo by Akash Patil)A day after being brought to Delhi from Turkey, Salim Dola, an alleged key mephedrone (MD) producer and close associate of fugitive don Dawood Ibrahim, landed in Mumbai on Wednesday evening. He will first be lodged at the NCB’s Mumbai unit before being produced before the special court designated under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS) at the Mumbai City Civil and Sessions Court on Thursday. Among the cases for which his custody will be sought is one involving the alleged possession of Fentanyl, a banned drug, worth Rs 1,000 crore, seized in Vakola, Santacruz in 2018.A Delhi court had granted the Narcotics Control Bureau a two-day transit remand after he was brought to the capital on Tuesday. Dola is the first target under Operation Global-Hunt, an NCB mission launched to dismantle drug networks run by fugitives abroad. Born in Dongri in South Mumbai, Dola fled India nearly a decade ago and established a transnational drug trafficking syndicate spanning West Asia, Africa and Europe. He was first arrested in 1998 with 40 kg of mandrax at Mumbai airport. Investigators believe he handled narcotics operations for the D-Company after Salim Mirchi. His role came back into focus in 2024 after a Mumbai Police Crime Branch probe into a 4 kg MD seizure traced the supply chain from Sangli and Surat to the UAE and Turkey, where he allegedly directed operations through associates. Last year, his son Taher and nephew Mustafa Mohammad Kubbawala were deported from the UAE through Interpol, a move officials said had weakened his network. He is wanted in multiple cases in the city, including those filed by the NCB and the Mumbai Police Anti-Narcotic Cell.
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