NCB probes Dola’s links with chemists, his Turkiye citizenship plans

He was arrested in Turkiye on the strength of a request made by the NCB in 2024 to the Interpol, which issued a notice, and brought to Delhi last week.

New Delhi: Investigators probing the network of Mohammad Salim Dola, the alleged international drug trafficker brought back from Turkiye recently, have found his links with certain chemists and pharma dealers who were “aiding” the illicit trans-national racket.

The 59-year-old accused, alleged to be a key associate of global terrorist Dawood Ibrahim, is in the custody of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in Mumbai till May 8.

He was arrested in Turkiye on the strength of a request made by the NCB in 2024 to the Interpol, which issued a notice, and brought to Delhi last week.

Officials privy to the probe told PTI that operatives in international drugs networks identified Dola as ‘Mephedrone King’ due to his alleged wide expertise in trafficking this category of drug.

Dola was operating with the help of certain chemists for running his syndicate. These links are being investigated and some of these players will be summoned in the near future for questioning, officials said on the condition of anonymity.

They claimed Dola assumed aliases in Turkiye such as ‘Hamza’ and ‘Abdul’ and that he was planning to purchase some immovable assets in that country in order to obtain citizenship.

The federal anti-narcotics agency is expected to approach Turkiye authorities with a legal request for obtaining details of his residency there.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said on April 28, the day Dola was brought to India, that he was wanted for prosecution in multiple narcotics trafficking cases in the country and had been absconding from Indian law enforcement agencies.

“Over the years Dola had established a major trans-national drug trafficking syndicate spanning a number of countries in the Middle East, Africa and Europe.”

“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,” the MHA said in a statement.

Mephedrone, also known as 4-methylmethcathinone, 4-MMC and 4-methylephedrone, is a synthetic stimulant drug and it is also identified by its slang names like drone, M-CAT, white magic, ‘meow meow’ and bubble.

The accused can speak Hindi and Marathi and is also known as Salim Ismail Dola.