Salim Dola, a significant outlawed drug maker and close associate of fugitive don Dawood Ibrahim, was extradited to India from Istanbul after being apprehended in a combined operation by local police and Turkiye's National Intelligence Organization. The fugitive is being held at the Narcotics Control Bureau's RK Puram office in Delhi before being turned over to the Mumbai police.
After leaving India almost ten years ago, Dola, a resident of Dongri, was operating a multi-state drug network from overseas. His involvement became apparent after a focused inquiry into the drug sales earnings purportedly managed by Faisal Javed Shaikh and Alfiya Faisal Shaikh, who are thought to have obtained mephedrone (MD) tablets from Dola.

The MD supply chain was tracked by the Mumbai Crime Branch investigation from Sangli and Surat to the United Arab Emirates and Turkey, where Dola allegedly oversaw activities through collaborators. Dola's network was weakened last year when authorities used the Interpol framework to deport his nephew Mustafa Mohammad Kubbawala and his son Taher from the United Arab Emirates.
Salim Dola: Who Is He?
Dola, who was born in 1966 into a middle-class family in Mumbai's Byculla neighbourhood, became involved in the city's underworld at an early age. Don Chhota Shakeel, who was then a member of Dawood Ibrahim's D-company, became his acquaintance.Dola first participated in the smuggling of tobacco, or gutkha, between Delhi and Mumbai. He eventually entered the drug trade and started trafficking ganja, or marijuana.
He was detained by the Narcotics Control Bureau in 2012 while in possession of an 80-kilogram marijuana shipment. The court cleared him after he had been incarcerated for over five years.
Dola contacted fugitive drug supplier Kailash Rajput after his release from prison. He entered the realm of synthetic medications at this point. With Kailash Rajput's help, Dola started producing a synthetic medication called "Button." This medication is marketed as tablets or pills and is made with hazardous opioids like fentanyl.He was detained in Santacruz in 2018 by the Mumbai Police's Anti-Narcotics Cell, which also confiscated 100 kg of fentanyl. But after forensic reports showed that the samples were negative, he was given bail in less than four months.
Dola left India and travelled to the United Arab Emirates after being granted bail. There, he placed the money he made from his narcotics operations in a real estate company he set up under his son Tahir's name.