In a major breakthrough for the Mumbai Crime Branch, fugitive drug trafficker Salman Salim Shaikh alias Shera Batla (35) — a close aide of notorious narcotics peddler Salim Dola — has been extradited from Dubai. The Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC) of Mumbai Police arrested him at the city airport on Friday night, and he has since been remanded in police custody for five days.

Shaikh was wanted in multiple mephedrone (MD) smuggling and manufacturing cases registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985, registered in Mumbai, Akola and Telangana.

In 2023, Mumbai Crime Branch (Unit-6) seized 356 grams of ketamine, MD, and 45 grams of charas worth Rs 72.6 lakh. In another case at Barshi Takli Police Station in Akola, a raid on a drug-manufacturing unit led to the seizure of 5.5 kg of ephedrine valued at Rs 1.38 crore. Further investigations revealed that Shaikh’s network was linked to a factory in Bibinagar, Telangana, where police seized 110 kg of MD and 10 kg of Alprazolam, worth Rs 23 crore. A case was also registered earlier this year at Sakinaka Police Station in Mumbai after officers seized 180 kg of MD worth Rs 46 crore from a clandestine manufacturing unit in Mysuru.

Speaking on Shaikh’s extradition, Deputy Commissioner of Police (ANC) Navnath Dhawale said, “This year, the crime branch has successfully extradited four wanted accused from abroad: Shera Batla, Mustafa Kubbawala, Tahir Dola, and Salem Shaikh.”

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