Dawood Ibrahim linked to British properties: Report

India's most wanted terrorist Dawood Ibrahim has been linked to a series of properties across Britain, according to a media report on Saturday. The 62-year-old fugitive mafia boss, wanted in India as the mastermind of the Mumbai bomb blasts in 1993 and accused of crimes such as match-fixing and extortion, accrued a vast property portfolio across the Midlands and south-east in the UK as well as India, the United Arab Emirates, Spain, Morocco, Turkey, Cyprus and Australia, 'The Times' reported.

The newspaper matched details from a dossier prepared by Indian authorities to records held by the UK's Companies House and the Land Registry, as well as the Panama Papers to form a snapshot of the alleged property portfolio. It is claimed his syndicate, known as DCompany, once smuggled drugs through Pakistan and across Indian borders for shipment to Europe and North America from the ports at Mumbai, as portrayed in a new BBC series 'McMafia'.

Ibrahim, believed to be hiding in Pakistan, is the inspiration behind an Indian underworld don named "Dilly Mahmood" in the eight-part television series, which highlights the misuse of Britain by globally organised crime syndicates. "Britain features in his (Ibrahim's) criminal world as a place where he can launder money – a classic 'McMafia' tactic. He is thought to have property interests in a variety of southern English counties like Essex and Kent," Misha Glenny, who wrote the non-fiction book 'McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld' and is an executive producer on the TV series, told the newspaper.