A day after being brought to Delhi from Turkey, druglord Salim Dola lands in Mumbai

The trail that led to Dola’s deportation began in July 2023, when the Mumbai NCB unit under zonal director Amit Ghawate arrested Dongri resident Faisal Javed Shaikh in a 20 kg mephedrone seizure case. Initially considered a small catch, the probe took a decisive turn when investigators examined Shaikh’s bank accounts. “There were large sums transferred from his accounts to various suspicious bank accounts,” an official said. “We did what usually works in such cases – follow the money. Painstakingly through the maze of bank accounts we found his link going all the way to Salim Dola who was then in UAE. We suspected that drugs were being supplied to Faisal and remittances were being sent to Dola for the same,” the source said.

While Shaikh was granted bail in the NCB case, he was later arrested by the Mumbai Crime Branch under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) and lodged in Arthur Road prison. When it emerged he was still operating within his network from behind bars, he was transferred in May last year to Puzhal Central Prison in Chennai. “Chennai prisons are known to be strict and would help disrupt his network by keeping him away,” the official said.

By October 2025, the NCB had unearthed enough financial linkages to rope in the Enforcement Directorate. ED searches across eight premises in Mumbai were conducted to trace sale proceeds acquired by a “well-established” drug trafficking network involving Faisal Javed Shaikh and Alfiya Faisal Shaikh, leading to the seizure of Rs 42 lakh in cash and three high-end second-hand vehicles including a BMW. “It was in this case that Salim Dola had been named as a wanted accused, as we found that the mephedrone acquired by them was obtained from Dola and remittances were sent through a network of accounts,” the official said. Dola will be produced before the special NDPS court for custody in this case before being handed over to the Mumbai Crime Branch and subsequently moved to Gujarat, where additional offences are registered against him.

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.