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Salim Dola, Dawood's close aide and drug lord, deported to India
Upon arriving at the airport’s technical area, agencies took Salim Dola for interrogation.
Salim Dola (59), a key drug kingpin and close aide of gangster Dawood Ibrahim, was deported to India early Tuesday morning from Turkey and handed over to the Indian agencies, officials aware of the matter said.
Dola was detained by the Turkish Intelligence Agency and the Beylikduzu police on Saturday, following inputs from India’s agencies.
Upon arriving at the airport’s technical area, agencies took Dola for interrogation. The CBI facilitated his extradition from Turkey. Interpol had issued a Red Corner Notice against Dola on the CBI’s request, as the Mumbai Police and the NCB wanted him in various cases. The agency will likely release a statement on Tuesday afternoon.
Also read: Dawood aide, drug lord Salim Dola detained in Turkey, may be extradited via UAE
According to agencies, Dola is a key operative who runs Dawood’s drug network and has recently entered mephedrone manufacturing at clandestine laboratories across different states. He has been active since the 1980s. He was living in Beylikduzu under a false identity. The man is a resident of
Mumbai’s Dongri and has been linked to many drug busts, and has been arrested by Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Mumbai Police, and Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) before he jumped bail and fled the country sometime in 2018.
“Dola could be handed to the NCB or the Mumbai police. Both agencies have cases against him. He has been active for more than three decades now. His network’s activities have been under surveillance for the past few months,” an official aware of the matter said.
The Mumbai police found his involvement in a 2024 case related to the seizure of around 126 kg of mephedrone in Mumbai and traced the supply chain from Maharashtra to Turkey and Dubai.
People arrested in this case have named him as the person behind the drug manufacturing and supply chain. Dola’s son, Tahir Salim Dola, who was named in this case, was extradited from the UAE by CBI last year.
According to court records, Dola was first arrested on July 28, 1998, at the Sahara airport in Mumbai while trying to smuggle Mandrax tablets. In 2017, he was arrested by the DRI after the agency seized nearly 1,00,000 gutka pouches worth over ₹5 crore before they could be smuggled to Kuwait via sea. The consignment was seized at the Pipavav port in Gujarat and a godown in the national Capital.
