Drug cartel run by D-gang member Salim Dola busted: Maharashtra police

The police have arrested 16 members of the gang, busted factories manufacturing Mephedrone and seized the synthetic stimulant and raw materials worth ₹327.69 crore from the premises

The Mira Bhayandar–Vasai Virar (MBVV) police in Maharashtra have busted a multi-state drug cartel operated by Salim Dola, an alleged member of Dawood Ibrahim’s gang, by arresting 16 members of the gang over the past one and a half months. Police also busted factories manufacturing Mephedrone or MD during this period and seized the synthetic stimulant and raw materials worth ₹327.69 crore from the premises.

Salim Dola is believed to be close to fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar and his right-hand man Chhota Shakeel. (File)

Dola is believed to be close to fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar and his right-hand man Chhota Shakeel, and his involvement in the cartel indicates that the D-gang is still active in drug trafficking and is operating drug cartels in India from Gulf countries, said police.

According to MBVV police commissioner Madhukar Pandey, on May 15, unit 1 of the MBVV crime branch received a tip-off that two men travelling in a grey car were going to pass through Ghodbunder Road with a consignment of drugs. The police laid a trap, intercepted the vehicle, and arrested Nicholas Tyus and Shoaib Memon who were traveling in the car with 1,000 grams of MD worth ₹2 crore. Both men were residents of Vasai and they had received the drugs from their contact in Telangana, to sell in the Vasai-Virar area.

Following information provided by Memon, on May 17, the MBVV police visited Nasrapur in Telangana’s Vikarabad district and busted a factory manufacturing MD. They recovered MD worth ₹20 lakh from the factory premises along with raw material worth ₹25 crore and arrested the two men identified as Dayanand Muddenar and Nasir Shaikh alias Baba.

Muddenar then led the police to Ghanshyam Saroj and Mohammed Shakil, who were operating in Uttar Pradesh’s Jaunpur and Mumbai’s Goregoan, respectively. Saroj was arrested from Varanasi two days after police busted the factory in Jaunpur, while Shakil was arrested subsequently. The police recovered 71-gram MD worth ₹14 lakh from Shakeel.

On May 27, the crime branch arrested another peddler named Bharat alias Babu Siddheshwar Jadhav from Padgha in Thane and seized MD worth ₹53,000.

Muddenar’s interrogation revealed that the drug cartel was being funded from Surat in Gujarat by a man named Zulfikar alias Mohsin Kothari. On May 31, police raided the premises of Zulfikar, found ₹10.84 lakh in cash and arrested him. He claimed he had received the cash from Dola through hawala for funding MD manufacturing.

Interrogation of other arrested members of the ring revealed that Dola was using the services of a Mumbai-based angadiya named Hussain Mutafa Furniturewala, who was arrested after ₹6.80 lakh allegedly sent by Dola was recovered from him.

Upon further investigation, police found that Amir Taufiq Khan from Azamgad in UP and his brother Babu Taufiq Khan were also involved in manufacturing MD. The police raided their premises on June 25, recovered 300 kg raw MD, and arrested the duo. The siblings also led the police to their peddlers Mohammed Nadeem Mohammed Shafiq Khan, Ahmed Shah Faizal Shafiq Azmi, Mohammed Shadab Mohammed Shamshad Khan, and Alok Virendra Singh, all from Uttar Pradesh. On July 1, police arrested Abhishek alias Shubham Narendra Pratap Singh from Nalasopara and recovered three pistols, one revolver and 33 bullets from him.

“The entire drug cartel operated by Dola has been busted. We are now looking for the ringleader himself,” said Pandey.