Hard, credible evidence provided by Indian intelligence agencies to the United States that Dawood Ibrahim’s key aides Chhota Shakeel and Tiger Memon were actively pumping in high-quality cocaine into the American market compelled the US treasury department to declare the two as narcotics smugglers and impose sanctions against them.
Sources involved in compiling the evidence against Shakeel and Memon indicated that the duo could well be the single biggest suppliers of cocaine to the United States.
The dossier provided by Indian agencies to the US has details on how Shakeel and Memon were supplying cocaine to US drug syndicates through a vast network of associates in South Asia, West Asia and Africa. It also contains details on how funds from cocaine sales are being used by the “D Company” for terror strikes in India and Afghanistan.
Highly-placed government sources said New Delhi was trying for over a year to convince Washington that it was in the interests of America’s own national security to impose sanctions against Shakeel and Memon.
“A lot of effort has gone into this for the last one year. It was only after the US was totally convinced with evidence provided by India and realising how badly their own country was affected by this narcotics trade that they went ahead with imposing sanctions against the two criminals,” a senior Indian intelligence official said.
This means no American company or individual can now have business dealings with Shakeel and Memon, and all their assets in the United States have been frozen with immediate affect.
New Delhi has welcomed the US move, and asked “those countries harbouring them to bring them to justice”.
The Indian agencies also provided details of how the Dawood gang was smuggling high-grade heroin to Western Europe, particularly through Africa. “While the United States is a huge market for cocaine, in Europe it’s heroin that is in high demand,” the official said.