Top 10 Facts about Mobster Dawood Ibrahim

Top 10 Facts about Mobster Dawood Ibrahim

Dawood Ibrahim is a name quite familiar to many in the criminal underworld of Mumbai. He is one of the most notorious Indian mob bosses and high-profile drug kingpins. Leader of the infamous D-Company, an organized crime syndicate formed in the 1970s, Dawood is wanted on charges of drug trafficking, extortion, murder, smuggling, targeted killing, and terrorism. His criminal empire is one of the largest, and wealthiest, having been active from 1976 to date. He is known for his brutal tactics, links to terrorist organizations, and ability to stay hidden from the reach of law enforcement to date. Here are the top 10 Facts about the mobster, Dawood Ibrahim.

Read more on 20 Most Famous Gangsters of All Time while at it.

1.  Dawood began a life of crime in his teenage years

Photo by Max Kleinen on Unsplash

Born on 26  December 1955 in Maharashtra, India, Dawood had a normal childhood. His father worked in the Mumbai Police Force, while his mother took care of the home. He attended school up to the high school level, where he dropped out of Ahmed Sailor High School. By then, he had started getting involved in petty crimes such as theft. Soon he joined a local gang headed by gangster Don Baashu Dada and continued his life of crime in robbery, and fraud. Dawood later split from the gang to create his own together with his elder brother. This became known as the D-Company, which he led solely after the assassination of his brother by a rival gang.

2. Gangster Shabir Ibrahim Kaskar was Dawood’s eldest brother

Shabir is the brother who helped Dawood form the D-Company gang. The two steadily rose through the tough patches of the criminal underworld in Mumbai, to become one of the most rivaled criminal figures. Their growing power and influence evoked envy from rival gangs, particularly the Pathan gang, who vowed to eliminate them. The Pathan gang recruited another Indian underworld gangster, Manya Surve, to kill the two. On 12 February 1981, Shabir was shot to death, leaving Dawood as the sole boss of their gang. Heated gang wars ensued but Dawood weathered to storm, becoming the dominant mob boss eventually, and replacing the Pathan Gang with his D-Company group.

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3. His criminal operations are numerous and quite grave

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Under his leadership, the D-Company is involved in several criminal operations including extortion, drug trafficking, targeted killings, gold smuggling, and terrorism. It is one of the deadliest organized crime syndicates in Mumbai’s underworld. Equally, it is one of the richest from proceeds of crime, making ridiculously huge amounts of money from narcotics, smuggling, kidnapping, contract killings, and extortion. In the 1980s, D-Company was largely involved in smuggling gold and silver, accounting for approximately 25% of India’s total imports. The crime syndicate has also been implicated in several bombings in India, and terrorism funding.

4. He’s believed to have affiliations with Al-Qaeda and Lahkar-e-Taiba

Osama Bin Laden (2001) by Hamid Mir, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Al-Qaeda is a terrorist organization led by Salafi jihadists. Since its formation in 1988, it has been involved in numerous civilian and military attacks in several countries. Dawood is believed to have had contact with one of its former leaders, Osama bin Laden. Some of his smuggling routes in South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East have been linked to Al-Qaeda, according to the U.S. Department of Treasury. Allegations of funding terrorism extend to the Lashkar-e-Taiba, a militant Islamist organization operating in Pakistan against India. Dawood  has since been labeled a wanted terrorist, and his syndicate, the D-Company has been designated a Global Terrorist Organization  under the U.S. Special Designated Nationals Blocked Person List

5. Dawood is believed to have been involved in the 1993 Bombay Attacks

On 12 March 1993, 12 terrorist bombings took place in Bombay, occasioning a total of 257 deaths and 1,400 serious injuries. Dawood was implicated as the mastermind behind the attacks, along with members of the D-Company, specifically Tiger Memon and Yakub Memon. The attacks were carried out through car bombs and suitcase bombs placed in strategic public spaces. These were detonated at intervals of 30 minutes to a few hours throughout the day; a total of 12 bombs.

Hundreds of suspects were arrested and tried, with 100 of the 129 accused being found guilty. Yakub Memon was eventually executed by hanging, but Dawood, the suspected mastermind of the attacks has eluded custody to date. It is believed he fled to Pakistan but his whereabouts remain unknown. The attack caused much turbulence within the syndicate, and one of his closest associates Chhota Rajan defected from the group.

6. Mobster Chhota Rajan was once his right-hand man

Rajan’s real name is Rajendra Sadashiv, and he is one of the most notorious Indian gangsters. He was the boss of a major crime syndicate, the Bada Rajan gang before joining forces with Dawood Ibrahim in the late 1980s. Rajan left Dawood’s camp in 1993, and it is suspected that is because he objected to the 1993 Bombay Attacks. Dawood is believed to have been the mastermind behind the bombings. After splitting from Dawood’s D-Company, Rajan formed an independent gang, becoming a rival to his former partner. He was involved in drug trafficking, extortion, smuggling, and murder. He is accused of 70 murders and several other attempted ones. In 2015, he was finally arrested in Bali and extradited to India. He was convicted of murder on 2 May 2018 and sentenced to life imprisonment.

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7. He was named number 3 on the FBI’s ‘World’s 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list

Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation placed Dawood on the list in 2011. He is wanted for terrorism, extortion, drug trafficking, smuggling, and targeted killing not only by India but also by Pakistan’s governments. The latter listed him too in a sanction list in line with obligations under the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). FATF is an intergovernmental organization whose primary objective is to combat money laundering and terrorism financing. In 2006, the government of Pakistan received from India, a list of 38 most wanted criminals, Dawood being one of them. While it is speculated that Dawood is hiding and operating from Pakistan, the latter’s government has denied this assertion.

8. He has heavily invested in real estate

One of the actions taken against Dawood and his criminal empire is the seizure of his assets. As already stated, his crime syndicate is involved in numerous illegal activities such as drug trafficking, extortion, and large-scale smuggling at an international level, which earns him huge amounts of monetary gains. It’s no surprise therefore that he has a string of expensive properties under his belt. In 2017, three of his properties, including the famous Delhi Zaika restaurant, were sold off.  In 2020, the Indian government auctioned 6 of his properties. Dawood is believed to have huge real estate investments, particularly in India, Dubai, and Karachi, Pakistan.

9. Most of the Hawala system is believed to be in his control

The Hawala system is an informal money transfer system primarily operating in Middle Eastern countries, the Horn of Africa, and the Indian Subcontinent. It originated in India. It is based on trust, and the honor system, as opposed to legal or judicial instruments. While it is popular for its speed and ease, it has also been used illegally to cover up illegally acquired money by essentially hiding it from legal structures or agents. Often, a huge network of money brokers is involved. Dawood is believed to control much of the Hawala system in the region.

10. D-Company is known for extorting Bollywood producers and celebrities

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Dawood and his crime syndicate have been previously linked to financing the Bollywood film industry in the 1980s and 1990s. They’ve also been known to extort some of the Bollywood producers and celebrities by making them pay protection money. In 1997, the killing of Gulshan Kumar Dua, an Indian film producer, and businessman, was linked to D-Company. The police suspected that it was a case of contract killing, and alleged that film composer Nadeem Saifi had hired Abu Salem, a D-Company associate to kill Gulshan due to a personal dispute. Salem then hired Abdul Rauf to do the job. Rauf confessed to the murder and was convicted in 2002.

Dawood is still on the run, and concerted efforts to track him and bring him to justice for his criminal activities have not borne much fruit. He has been suspected to be in Pakistan, but these claims have not been established.