International drug smuggler Mohammad Salim Dola, who was recently brought to India from Türkiye, is in the headlines these days. The investigating agencies were looking for this for a long time. He was detained in Istanbul on 26 April. According to the investigating agencies, he was living in Türkiye with a fake identity. Salim Dola changed his identity in Türkiye and was living there under the name Hamza on a Bulgarian passport. However, it is being investigated whether this passport was genuine or fake.
It was not so easy to track Salim Dola, who was close to Dawood and operated the drug network of D Company in many countries including India - for the last several years, Indian investigative agencies were trying to track Salim Dola with the help of Interpol. According to the officials involved in this operation, finding Dola was like finding a needle in a haystack - but one small mistake of Salim Dola put him behind the bars.
You must be wondering what was the mistake that brought out Dawood's closest aide Salim Dola from the hideout and exposed him to the world. So let us tell you.
Sources associated with the investigating agency claim that Salim Dola had fled to Istanbul due to fear of Indian agencies, where Dola had taken himself underground. Or rather, I had put myself under house arrest and completely cut off contact with the outside world.
Salim Dola did not come out of his room in Istanbul for one and a half years nor did he contact anyone directly so that Indian investigative agencies and Interpol could not track him. But a few days ago Dola made a big mistake. He had no idea that his mistake would put him behind bars. Actually, Dola ordered a courier to the address of her hideout and from there Indian agencies tracked Dola with the help of Interpol.
After this, this information was immediately given to Istanbul Police, Istanbul Police raided Dola's room. From where during the search, three passports were recovered, out of which one passport was from Bulgaria and two were Indian passports. His name was written as Hamza in the Bulgarian passport. After that, Operation Global Hunt started with the help of the Indian Foreign Ministry, under which it was successful in bringing him back to India despite there being no extradition treaty with Turkey.
If sources are to be believed, Salim Dola was using Turkey as a transit route for drug smuggling. Because Türkiye is between Asia, Europe and the Middle East. According to the sources of the agency, his network was spread to many countries of the world and many international drug smugglers of the world had become part of his syndicate which was continuously controlling the supply of synthetic drugs like MDMA in a remote manner. Not only Dola but all the people of her family were engaged in this drug business. In June 2025, Salim Dola's son Tahir Dola was also brought to India from UAE. Another one of his associates was also extradited from Dubai and arrested.
