Operation Global Hunt: India’s big strike on narco syndicates

In a decisive move against transnational crime, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has launched Operation Global-Hunt, a three-year strategic offensive targeting approximately 100 international drug networks operated by Indian fugitives from safe havens in Dubai, Canada, Europe and beyond.

The operation envisaged during an Interpol conference and backed by a detailed roadmap submitted to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), leverages Interpol Red Notices, asset freezes and coordinated raids with foreign agencies to hunt, arrest and repatriate kingpins, often via special flights after dossiers are submitted to host governments.

The first major victory came on April 28, 2026, when NCB secured the deportation of Mohammad Salim Dola, a 59-year-old Mumbai-based drug lord and close aide of the global terrorist Dawood Ibrahim. Detained in Istanbul’s Beylikdüzü district after a March 2024 Interpol Red Corner Notice issued at India’s request, Dola was flown back to Delhi’s IGI Airport and taken into NCB custody.

Dola was wanted for over two decades by Mumbai Police and Gujarat ATS as he allegedly ran a sprawling syndicate trafficking heroin, Charas, Mephedrone, Mandrax, Methamphetamine and fentanyl across the Middle East, Africa and Europe networks long suspected of fuelling India’s drug crisis and possibly Narco-Terror links.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah hailed the operation as a reflection of Narendra Modi Government’s ‘Zero Tolerance’ policy. “No matter where they hide, no place is safe for drug kingpins,” he posted on the microblogging site, underscoring a muscular shift from reactive policing to proactive global pursuit.