United States swaps prisoners with Taliban: Drug lord for Navy veteran

The United States government has swapped a hostage with the Taliban and brought back home a US Navy veteran, Mark Frerichs, for a drug lord, Bashir Noorzai. While Frerichs was captured in 2020 by Taliban allies, the Haqqani network, Noorzai has been serving a life sentence in the US on charges of drug smuggling.

While confirming the release of the Navy veteran on Monday, a senior official of the Joe Biden administration told CNN, “Bringing Mark home has been a top priority for President Biden and his national security team”.

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Charlene Cakora, Frerichs’ sister, released a statement post the release of her brother, in which she said, “I am so happy to hear that my brother is safe and on his way home to us. Our family has prayed for this each day of the more than 31 months he has been a hostage. We never gave up hope that he would survive and come home safely to us”.

The Washington Post has reported that officials of the US government and the Taliban had been in talks about the release of the 60-year-old during their meetings at Doha, the capital of Qatar. The Post was told by a US government official that the prisoner exchange was a “difficult” decision to take for President Biden.

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The Taliban, however, are seeing this negotiation as an improvement in their relationship with the United States. The Taliban’s acting foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, said that the prisoner exchange has kicked off a new “era” in the relationship between the Taliban and the US.

Frerichs often visited Afghanistan due to his work with the International Logistical Support, of which he is a director. Noorzai, on the other hand, had smuggled heroin worth $50 million into the US from Afghanistan and Pakistan. While he said he was not sure of the location where he was held prisoner, certain Taliban officials claimed that he was held at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.