Middle-class roots to underworld rise, then deportation to India: Who is Salim Dola?
In a big breakthrough for the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), a key aide of gangster Dawood Ibrahim was deported to India on Tuesday from Turkey. The deportation of Mohammad Salim Dola, the 59-year-old notorious drug trafficker, stood as an example of India’s “zero tolerance” for the narco syndicate.
Born in India to a middle-class family in Mumbai’s Byculla in 1966, Salim Dola quickly grew ties with Dawood Ibrahim and then became a mastermind behind one of the largest synthetic drug manufacturing and supply cartels operational in India.
He was detained by the Turkish Intelligence Agency and the Beylikduzu police before being deported to India.
Gutka to weed, then drugs: Dola’s criminal past
After falling into the Mumbai underworld at a young age, Dola first gained prominence through the supply of gutka in Mumbai and Delhi. The illicit substances he supplied soon changed to marijuana or ‘weed’ and his first arrest by the NCB came in 2012 after 80 kilograms of marijuana were found in his possession.
It was only after his release from jail that he became acquainted with the world of drugs. As stated in an earlier HT report, his friendship with Kailash Rajput, a fugitive drug supplier, aided the setting up of a manufacturing unit for ‘Button’, a synthetic drug made using fentanyl.
The second arrest came in 2018 when 100 kilograms of fentanyl were recovered on Salim Dola. However, he was granted bail within a few months after the samples tested negative for fentanyl. It was after this that Salim Dola fled to the UAE, acquired passport there under a false name and fled to Turkey, where he was eventually caught.
Interpol Red Notice, wanted for narcotics trafficking
According to a press release by the home ministry, Salim Dola was a subject of INTERPOL Red Notice issued at India’s request in 2024 and was wanted for prosecution in multiple narcotics trafficking cases in India.
“Over the years Dola had established a major transnational drug trafficking syndicate spanning a number of countries in the Middle East, Africa and Europe. His two-decade long criminal antecedents include direct involvement in cases involving multiple high-value seizures of Heroin, Charas, Mephedrone, Mandrax and Methamphetamine in Maharashtra and Gujarat,” the release read.
According to the government, Salim Dola emerged as the bulk supplier to downstream distribution networks in India. His son Tahil and other associates had been arrested by the Mumbai Police after extradition from the UAE in 2025.
