NEW DELHI, Aug 14: In a major operation against international narcotics trafficking networks, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has secured the return of fugitive drug kingpin Virender Singh Basoya from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Friday.
Shah described the development as another milestone in the Centre’s policy of zero tolerance towards narcotics and praised the NCB for tracking down drug traffickers operating from abroad.
In a post on X, the Home Minister said the government was relentlessly pursuing drug traffickers hiding overseas and working to dismantle their entire criminal networks.
He said the successful return of Basoya demonstrated that drug traffickers could not evade Indian law enforcement agencies by hiding abroad.
Shah also commended the agencies for tracing the fugitive through a comprehensive approach aimed at identifying links across the entire trafficking network.
The latest operation comes months after the NCB secured the deportation of alleged international drug kingpin Mohammad Salim Dola from Turkiye in April this year under Operation Global-Hunt.
Dola, 59, who was allegedly linked to the Dawood Ibrahim syndicate, was detained by Turkish authorities in Beylikduzu and deported to India on April 28. The NCB took him into custody upon his arrival at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport.
The NCB is India’s federal agency responsible for combating drug trafficking and illegal narcotics activities under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985. Established on March 17, 1986, the agency functions under the Ministry of Home Affairs and coordinates anti-narcotics operations with state police and international law-enforcement agencies.
