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The Anti-Narcotics Cell of the Mumbai crime branch got Salman Saleem Shaikh alias Shera Batla, 35, a close aide of drug lord Salim Ismail Dola, extradited from Dubai Saturday. Shaikh, alleged to have links with drug cartels abroad and in India, was part of a drug network gang that operated between Dubai and Mumbai, police said.
Salman Shaikh is the fourth person to have been deported from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in connection with drug peddling and a Red Corner Notice (RCN was issued against him two years ago after his name cropped up in several drug cases in Mumbai and other states. Earlier, the Mumbai police deported Mohammad Saleem Mohammad Sohail Shaikh, 31, alias Lavish in October, and two other suspects identified as Taher Dola and Mustafa Kubbawala, from Abu Dhabi in June and July this year, respectively, in similar drug cases.
According to police, the Ghatkopar unit of the ANC arrested one Mohammed Shahrukh Shaikh, 28, from Nagpada area in central Mumbai and allegedly seized 995 grams of banned drug mephedrone approximately worth `2 crore from his possession in August 2022.
During further investigation, police arrested three more accused in the case and during interrogation, the name of three more suspects, including Salman Shaikh, cropped up. Two are still wanted in the case.
Shaikh fled to Dubai in 2022 and was operating from there under the guidance of Dola. Police said that a red-corner notice (RCN) was issued against Shaikh by the CBI Interpol two years ago after his name cropped up in the 2022 mephedrone seizure case registered by Ghatkopar ANC. He was produced in the court on Sunday and remanded in police custody till November 7. A chargesheet was submitted in the case against seven accused and Shaikh was shown wanted accused, said deputy commissioner of police Navnath Dhavale.
Shaikh is a resident of Dongri and has been connected with the drug case for more than a decade. Five cases were registered against him in unit 6 in 2023 where he was wanted in the seizure of drugs worth `72 lakh. While two cases of NDPS seizure worth `24 crore were registered in Barshi Takli and Bibi Nagar police stations in Telangana in 2024. The fifth case was registered this year in Sakinaka police station in Mumbai after police busted a MD manufacturing factory in Mysore,
Telangana and allegedly seized 180 kilograms MD and other materials worth around `400 crore. During interrogation, police found that Shaikh was in touch with the accused in Mumbai and coordinating for supervising drug peddlers, said a police officer.
Dola as the main accused linked to the Dawood Ibrahim gang that was running the network. Dola was running the racket from Dubai with the help of his son Taher, nephew Mustafa Kubbawala, and right-hand man Shaikh alias Lavish and Salman Shaikh and several others who are still wanted, some of them still staying in the UAE.
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