Mumbai drug lord Salim Dola arrested in Istanbul
Mumbai’s notorious Drug Lord, Salim Ismail Dola, who was on the run, has been arrested by the Turkish Intelligence in Istanbul. Indian agencies, including the Mumbai Police and the CBI, which secured a Red Corner Notice (RCN) against Dola, have confirmed his arrest. Dola is currently in Turkish custody and expected to be moved to a deportation centre pending legal formalities.
India is seeking Dola’s extradition through Interpol channels. Despite India and Turkey not having an extradition treaty, officials expect swift progress via international cooperation. It may be noted that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) had offered rewards for Dola’s arrest.
Top sources said, Salim Ismail Dola, the Mumbai-based kingpin of a major transnational synthetic drug empire, was arrested in a joint operation in the Beylikdüzü district. Dola, a 60-year-old fugitive linked to the UNSC, banned global mafia Dawood Ibrahim’s D-Company, was living under an assumed identity of a citizen of the UAE.
Mumbai Police’s Anti-Narcotics Cell played a pivotal role in unravelling Dola’s web of drug smuggling syndicate. A February 2024 raid in the city on four suspects with 4 kg of Mephedrone led investigators to a massive seizure of drugs from a Sangli factory. Mumbai Police sleuths detected the trail to Surat, the UAE and finally Dola’s presence in Turkey. By late 2025, over a dozen arrests had crippled parts of the network, but Dola remained elusive until the Turkish operation.
The April 2026 arrest in Beylikdüzü, a bustling western Istanbul suburb popular with middle-class residents and immigrants, underscores growing India-Turkey security cooperation against cross-border threats. Turkish media, including outlets like Milliyet and Hürriyet, reported the suspect’s location via surveillance, leading to his detention in a safe house. He was living discreetly under the alias tied to UAE documents, a tactic common among fugitives evading RCN.
Dola’s journey into the underworld began in Mumbai’s working-class Cotton Green neighbourhood. By the 1980s, he had shifted to Dongri, the notorious stronghold of the D-Company, where he allegedly carved out a place for himself in narcotics, eventually assuming a role akin to the late Iqbal Mirchi in overseeing drug operations for the syndicate.
Investigations by the Indian agencies have found that Dola focused on Mephedrone (MD), a synthetic stimulant produced in clandestine Indian labs using imported precursors. His intricate network supplied drugs across Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, generating thousands of crores annually through ties to South African and Mexican cartels. Proceeds accumulated through this nefarious trade were laundered via hawala and invested in real estate.
Mumbai Police had raided several places and premises of Dola in 2024-2025 and succeeded in dismantling the supply chain and seized hundreds of kilograms of MD and luxury assets.
Dola’s first major brush with the law came in 1998 at Mumbai’s Sahar Airport, where he was arrested attempting to smuggle 40 kg of Mandrax tablets. Court records detail how Dola and accomplices tried to bypass security with insider help, only to be caught after intelligence tipped off airport officers. He received a conviction but later resurfaced in bigger operations.
In 2017, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) nabbed him for smuggling Gutka worth Rs 5.5 crore through Gujarat’s Pipavav port. A year later, in 2018, his name surfaced in connection with a massive Rs 1,000-crore fentanyl seizure from Vakola Santacruz East near Mumbai airport, one of the largest synthetic drug hauls in India at the time. Dola managed to flee the country, relocating first to the UAE before shifting operations to Turkey.
His son Taher Dola and nephew Mustafa Mohammad Kubbawala were traced to the UAE, and Indian agencies succeeded in getting them deported to India in mid-2025. Their subsequent interrogation provided critical intelligence.
The April 2026 Beylikdüzü raid followed months of surveillance. Sources in the Indian agencies have hailed Dola’s arrest, a major blow to D-Company’s shift toward high-profit synthetic drugs. “Dola’s arrest severs a key node in organised crime and signals that long-time fugitives are increasingly within reach. The battle against India’s synthetic drug networks continues,” an official involved in tracking Dola said.
