US Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Todd D Robinson, will discuss Karachi-based underworld don Dawood Ibrahim during his four-day visit to Pakistan.
Responding to a question on whether Robinson will take up the issue of the transnational criminal and narcotics network of Karachi-based Dawood Ibrahim, a US State Department official said that they will raise the issue of transnational organized crime and narcotics trafficking with Pakistan, Global Strat View reported.
“We raise the issue of transnational organized crime and narcotics trafficking with our partners and interlocutors at every available opportunity,” a US official said.
Besides Dawood Ibrahim, Assistant Secretary will also discuss the US-Pakistan cooperation on various topics, including counter-narcotics, gender issues, transnational crime, and border security.
Dawood Ibrahim, who has been designated as a Global Terrorist under Executive Order 13224 by the US Treasury Department, is involved in large-scale shipments of narcotics in the UK and Western Europe and funding attacks by Islamic extremists aimed at destabilizing the Indian government, according to Global Strat View.
His transnational crime syndicate, D Company, principally operates in India, Pakistan, and the United Arab Emirates. D Company is involved in various criminal activities, including narcotics trafficking, extortion, smuggling, and contract killings.
Dawood Ibrahim and other leaders of D Company are the subjects of the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) red notices for their suspected involvement in the 1993 terrorist bombings in Mumbai, India, in which 257 people lost their lives.
According to the publication, in October 2003, the Treasury Department named Dawood Ibrahim a specially designated Global Terrorist. While, in June 2006, the US named Dawood Ibrahim and his crime syndicate D Company as significant foreign narcotics traffickers pursuant to the Kingpin Act.
Moreover, in May 2012, Treasury designated two senior D Company lieutenants, Chhota Shakeel and Ibrahim Tiger Memon, under the Kingpin Act.
Earlier in May, this year, the National Investigation Agency (NIA), arrested gangster Chhota Shakeel’s aides Arif Abubakar Shaikh (59) and Shabbir Abubakar Shaikh (51) involved in handling the D-Company’s illegal activities and terrorist financing in the western suburbs of Mumbai.
The case pertains to terror activities of the international terrorist network of D-Company (involving
Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar and his associates), which was allegedly indulged in arms smuggling, narco-terrorism, money laundering, circulation of fake Indian currency notes (FICN) and unauthorized possession of key assets for raising terror funds and working in active collaboration with the international terrorist organization including Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Al Qaeda (AQ).