Bashir Noorzai, a drug lord and member of the Taliban, was exchanged for Illinois native Mark Frerichs, a Navy veteran and civilian contractor kidnapped in Afghanistan in 2020:
A sister of Frerichs, who is from Lombard, Illinois, thanked U.S. officials who helped secure her brother's release.
When he was sentenced to life imprisonment, the then-top federal prosecutor in Manhattan said Noorzai's"worldwide narcotics network supported a Taliban regime that made Afghanistan a breeding ground for international terrorism." At a press conference Monday, Noorzai expressed gratitude at seeing his “mujahedeen brothers” — a reference to the Taliban — in Kabul.
Eric Lebson, a former U.S. government national security official who had been advising Frerichs' family, said in a statement that “everything about this case has been an uphill fight.” He criticized the Trump administration for having given away"our leverage to get Mark home quickly by signing a peace accord with the Taliban without ever having asked them to return Mark first.''
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