Overview
- The Esplanade Court in Mumbai remanded alleged Dawood Ibrahim aide Salim Dola to Crime Branch custody until May 25 on Wednesday after Unit 7 sought custodial interrogation.
- Unit 7 formally took him from the Narcotics Control Bureau, which brought him to Mumbai on April 29 from Turkiye following an Interpol Red Corner Notice requested in March 2024.
- The case stems from a March 2024 raid on an alleged mephedrone factory in Sangli that seized 122 kg of the synthetic drug with cash and gold worth about Rs 253 crore, including the arrest of alleged operator Pravin Shinde.
- Police allege Dola bankrolled the manufacturing units, oversaw transport, and supplied raw materials from abroad while directing distributors via foreign numbers and chat apps such as WhatsApp and Botim.
- Investigators are tracing the money flow they say moved through hawala and angadia channels, informal cash transfer and courier systems, and they point to earlier Dubai extraditions of co-accused Taher Dola and Kubbawala as evidence of the network’s cross-border reach.