ISI and Dawood Gang Move Drug Ops to Bangladesh

NEW DELHI:
Narcotics, for long, have been a major tool for the ISI to fund its terror infrastructure. The Indian agencies have been tightening the noose around the narcotics business that is under the complete control of ISI-backed Dawood Ibrahim. This has made the Dawood gang expand its network to cover the losses it has been incurring in recent times.

The D-syndicate has now set up shop in Bangladesh and also plans expansion into Saudi Arabia to further its narcotics trade. With India becoming harder to operate in for the syndicate, Bangladesh is the perfect destination where it can expand the drug trade.

The ISI has instructed the D-syndicate to use Bangladesh as the main point to push drugs into the Indian market. The regime is friendly towards Pakistan, and the ISI is taking complete advantage of the situation.

The ISI has also told the Dawood gang to use Bangladesh to smuggle drugs not just into India, but to Western and Middle Eastern countries. The D-syndicate has already begun setting up modules and various other channels to smuggle drugs into various markets. The gang has also been recruiting scores of youth to carry out the drug trade. It has also forged alliances with the drug mafia that operates out of Myanmar.

An Intelligence Bureau official says that the scale of operations in Bangladesh would be huge. The ISI would tap into all possible resources to make Bangladesh its primary operating centre where narcotics smuggling is concerned.

This would mean that the focus would move away from Pakistan, which has been the epicentre of the drug trade. When organisations such as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) probe terror funding, then the fingers would be pointed at Bangladesh and not Pakistan.

Pakistan would do everything to stay out of the FATF’s bad books owing to its failing economy. Getting back into the FATF’s Grey List would signal the complete collapse of the Pakistani economy. Islamabad cannot afford this, considering it is under pressure from China to fund the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Project 2.0 (CPEC).

Pakistan is also looking at the market in Saudi Arabia. This confidence stems from the fact that the two countries signed a nuclear protection and military agreement. This cooperation is something that the ISI would look to take advantage of. Plans are already afoot to use the Pakistanis living in Saudi Arabia to carry out the drug trade. The Dawood gang is already in the process of identifying youth in Saudi Arabia to carry out the trade.

The idea is to strengthen the drug supply chain within Saudi Arabia with the help of Pakistani nationals living there. However, according to Indian officials, the target would not be those persons living legally in Saudi Arabia. Many live there illegally, and they would be the target audience of the D-syndicate. The fact that they are living illegally is something that the ISI would leverage to force them to work for the Dawood gang.

Around ten years back, the Dawood network had done business with both Al-Qaeda and Boko Haram. However, over a period of time, this had stopped. However, now, according to the Intelligence agencies, these ties have once again been renewed. This means that the two terror groups would now supply drugs to the Dawood network in return for huge sums of money. Both these terror groups have a network that deals with the narcotics trade, and this would come in handy to the syndicate.

This network would be handled by Dawood’s brother, Anees Ibrahim, as he had done in the past as well. Both Al-Qaeda and Boko Haram are in need of funds. They are trying to raise huge sums of money so that they can recruit and also train people on a very large scale. Hence, this tie-up with the Dawood syndicate makes sense for them.

An official explained that the ISI is scaling up the narcotic trade in a big way. It would not just be a problem for India, but for many other countries. This requires a coordinated effort, and only then can the issue be tackled, the official also said.