US slaps sanctions on lieutenants of Indian crime boss
India accuses Dawood Ibrahim of masterminding the 1993 bombings in Mumbai, which killed 257 people and wounded more than 700 others in a single day.
The United States has placed sanctions on two top aides of Dawood Ibrahim, India’s most-wanted organized crime boss.
The Treasury Department named the two men – Chhota Shakeel and Ibrahim “Tiger” Memon – as drug traffickers and “key lieutenants” of Ibrahim on Tuesday, and has moved to freeze their assets and curb their access to international business and finance networks, according to the BBC.
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Dawood Ibrahim is accused of controlling criminal gangs in India’s commercial hub, Mumbai, and of smuggling narcotics from Afghanistan and Thailand to the US, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa, the Associated Press reports.
He is also the alleged mastermind of the 1993 bombings in Mumbai, which killed 257 people and wounded more than 700 others in a single day. Indian police say Ibrahim ordered the attacks to avenge the razing of a 16th century mosque by Hindu zealots in 1992, according to Reuters.
Delhi says Ibrahim is currently sheltering in Karachi, Pakistan, but Pakistani officials deny the charge. The US considers him a “global terrorist” and “foreign narcotics trafficker."
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