New Delhi – In an effort to revive the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) insurgent group in Sri Lanka and India through extensive drug and weapon smuggling, Indian agencies have discovered that Haji Salim, a gangster based in Karachi, is connected to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, sources familiar with the development said.
With the active support of the Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan’s spy agency, they claimed Salim, who is thought to be the brains behind a multimillion dollar drug network in Pakistan and the Indian Ocean, has frequently been spotted at Dawood’s Clifton Road residence in Karachi. It is suspected they both use each other’s resources for smuggling.
In order to break up Ibrahim’s D-Company and Salim’s Indian contacts, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), the National Investigation Agency (NIA), and the Directorate of Revenue and Intelligence (DRI) are working together.
Last month, the NCB and the navy worked together to intercept a so-called mother ship in the Indian Ocean, resulting in the seizure of 2,500kg of high purity methamphetamine valued at $12,000 crore. The shipment came from Makran seashore in Balochistan region and was carried via the “death crescent,” a name used by home minister Amit Shah to describe the smuggling route between Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.
The NIA claimed last week that members of the Sri Lankan drug underworld were purchasing drugs from Salim while submitting a charge sheet against 13 people in an investigation into the LTTE’s resurgence in India. It stated that “the accused used various foreign WhatsApp numbers to conduct the illegal trade.”
Salim’s identity was also mentioned in a charge sheet that Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad filed on Friday regarding the smuggling of 40kg of heroin and firearms on a boat called Al-Soheli in December of last year, in which 10 Pakistanis were apprehended.
“Even though Indian authorities dismantled D-Company’s network in the late 1990s, it’s possible that his former contacts are still involved with Salim’s gang given the explosive growth of the drug traffic via land and maritime routes following the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021. Salim has been spotted at Dawood’s home in Karachi, where he is always guarded by armed men, according to an unnamed police official.
Salim supervises the smuggling to India, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, and several Middle Eastern nations while working with the ISI and the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, according to a story published by HT on April 30.
His organisation runs numerous covert facilities in Balochistan where heroin packets imported from Afghanistan are marked with various symbols or inscriptions, including “555,” “999,” “Unicorn,” and “Dragon.”
According to estimates, 70% of all drug trafficking in India occurs via maritime lines, and Salim’s network is responsible for the majority of the shipments.
The D-Company’s mid-ocean movement of contraband from a mother boat (big vessels) to tiny fishing boats and dhows was comparable to Salim’s cartel’s modus operandi, according to a second officer.
A special edition of the NCB’s annual report for 2022 stated that “maritime drug trafficking in the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal poses new challenges to drug law enforcement agencies and they anticipate further expansion of this route by international drug trafficking syndicates operating from Pakistan and Afghanistan.”
The NCB and other organisations have received increased funding from the government for improved monitoring of Indian waterways, and ports now check all suspected containers.
According to the first officer cited above, the NCB has also chosen areas to set up mobile car scanners at international and domestic borders. The home ministry is therefore investigating technology to scan cargo.
