Dawood's D-Company partners Afghan drug lord to expand heroin trade

Haji Lal Jan Ishaqzai is an infamous drug lord and D-Company is learnt to have made ground networks using his help in seven African countries.

In a bid to spread its dreaded drugs empire, terrorist Dawood Ibrahim's D-Company is learnt to have entered into a partnership with notorious Afghan drug lord Haji Lal Jan Ishaqzai. According to Indian intelligence agencies, D-Company has already established a ground network with Ishaqzai's help in seven African countries.

With the increasing threat from drug traffickers, Indian security agencies have been working overtime to blunt the massive threat posed. D-Company, looking at generating capital through illegal - but lucrative - heroin trade, has taken the help of Ishaqzai to execute their nefarious plans of pumping narcotics in India and elsewhere. It has been learnt that D-Company has already established ground networks in Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Ghana from where it hopes to carry out operations.

Ishaqzai's notorious reputation may have made him an ideal partner to seek for D-Company. The Afghan was mentioned by former US President Barack Obama in 2011 as a sinister figure in the illegal world of narco-trafficking. He was apprehended soon after and was even sentenced to 20 years in prison in Afghanistan. He somehow managed to get himself transferred from a prison in Kabul to a prison in Kandahar and from here, allegedly bribed his way to a successful escape. There are reports that he may have crossed into Pakistan and may have found shelter in Quetta.

Indian intelligence agencies suspect that Dawood may have contacted Pakistan's Inter-State Services to extend cover to Ishaqzai in return for his support in D-Company's drugs trade. Ishaqzai has contacts in Asia and Europe and it is this that may have already been exploited by D-Company. It is through this that D-Company may have also smuggled drugs into India via the Afghan-Pakistan route. It is suspected that drugs are hidden among or inside fruits which are then either smuggled into India via the Wagah-Attari border or through jute bags which are brought in via the sea route and into Gujarat and Mumbai.

Sources reveal that since the death of Iqbal Mirchi, responsible for handling the drug operations of D-Company, the notorious business was dwindling and it is this that may have prompted a look at Ishaqzai. Sources also say that the Home Ministry is aware of the threat and is devising an effective solution to deal with it.