FP: A drug kingpin whose heroin empire helped fund the Taliban’s long war in Afghanistan—and who was released early from a U.S. prison in a trade for an American hostage—has now gone into business with China. Bashir Noorzai, a close friend of the extremists’ supreme leader, has set up murky joint-venture deals with Chinese firms
Daily Beast: “Noorzai isn’t the first drug smuggler the US [had] released; about 50 other drug traffickers were released after the Doha deal, but he is certainly the most prominent,” the official said. “All of them [released prisoners] have gone back to their narcotic business again, as will Noorzai. The Taliban continue to depend on
8am: Taliban officials have called the release of Haji Bashir Ahmad Noorzai, known as Haji Bashar, as a sign of American goodwill and a “new chapter in the relations” between the Taliban and the United States. Haji Bashar is known in the media and political circles as the godfather of Afghanistan’s drug mafia. It is
Ayaz Gul VOA News September 19, 2022 ISLAMABAD — The Taliban Monday freed Mark Frerichs, the only American hostage remaining in Afghanistan, in exchange for a Taliban drug lord, Bashir Noorzai, who was serving a life sentence in a U.S. prison. Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi told reporters in Kabul the prisoner swap between his
Yahoo News: U.S. government agencies are again looking at a long-standing proposal to release an Afghan drug kingpin [Bashir Noorzai] in exchange for concessions in peace talks, which would include the release of an American held [by the Taliban-aligned Haqqani network] in Afghanistan, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. Click here to read
1TV: The United States is considering to release Bashir Noorzai, an Afghan heroin kingpin, who is imprisoned since 2005, it has been reported. Noorzai was given a life sentence in 2009 after being convicted of conspiring to import heroin into the US and conspiring to distribute it. Click here to read more (external link).