ED’s Mumbai drug bust: ₹100-Crore laundering network busted, possibly linked to Dawood Ibrahim

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has busted a sprawling drug and money laundering syndicate, seizing ₹42 lakh in unaccounted cash, multiple luxury BMWs, and exposing a global web of shell companies allegedly used to launder over ₹100 crore in narcotics proceeds.

The October 8 raids, carried out under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, spanned nine locations across Mumbai and revealed a multilayered network that blended street-level drug peddling with international hawala operations.

At the center of the racket are Faisal Javed Shaikh and his wife Alfiya Faisal Shaikh, accused of orchestrating the distribution of MDMA (ecstasy) sourced from the infamous drug trafficker Salim Dola, according to ED officials. The couple, aided by Ashik Varis Ali and Nasir Khan, allegedly turned Mumbai’s nightlife into a high-stakes narcotics hub, catering to elite party circuits and underground dealers.

Faisal, a repeat offender, was previously released on bail in a similar case but was rearrested under the Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (PIT-NDPS) Act after violating bail conditions and resuming his illegal trade, the agency added.

ED officers, acting on intelligence shared by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), executed the raids with precision. They uncovered cash stashed in hidden safes, three high-end sedans—including two BMWs suspected to have been acquired through benami transactions—and electronic evidence such as encrypted devices and falsified ledgers. Several bank accounts and one locker were frozen, while property papers linked to luxury real estate purchases in Mumbai’s suburbs were also seized.

Financial forensics revealed a network of shell firms – companies with no employees or real operations – allegedly used to channel drug money through overseas remittances and trade-based laundering routes, particularly through hawala networks extending to the Middle East.

Significantly, investigators are probing whether this financial and narcotics network has possible links to underworld fugitive Dawood Ibrahim. Sources indicated that some of the overseas hawala channels and operators overlap with networks historically associated with Dawood’s operations, though the connection is still under verification.

The ongoing probe, which builds on an existing NCB FIR, is mapping both forward and backward linkages – tracing drugs from production in clandestine labs to their final distribution across Mumbai’s nightlife scene. Authorities have issued rewards for information leading to Faisal’s recapture, warning that the syndicate may have transnational cartel connections.

As investigators analyze seized data, the ED has vowed a ‘zero-tolerance approach’ toward narcotics-linked money laundering. Assets are expected to be provisionally attached, with prosecutions under PMLA carrying penalties of up to 10 years in prison and forfeiture of illicit property.