The Taliban “Ministry of Foreign Affairs” announced Tuesday that one of its members, detained in the United States on narcotics and terrorism charges, has been traded by the U.S. for two Americans held prisoner for several years by the extremist Afghan regime.
The Taliban identified the member involved in the exchange as a “mujahid,” or jihadist, named Khan Mohammad, now 55 years of age. He was arrested in 2006 in the province of Nangarhar and extradited to the U.S. to face drug and terrorism charges.
Mohammed was arrested based on a tip from an Afghan farmer who said the Taliban attempted to recruit him to conduct a rocket attack on an airfield used by American and NATO forces.
The farmer wore a wire to meetings with Mohammed, a village elder, and the Taliban’s local operations manager. Mohammed allegedly discussed attacking U.S. and Afghan government personnel and funding Taliban terrorism with heroin and opium sales, without knowing he was being recorded.
During one recorded conversation, when Mohammed was told a batch of opium would be processed into heroin and sold in the United States, he commented: “Good, may Allah turn all the infidels to dead corpses.” He later said he regarded selling dangerous drugs to Americans as a form of jihad.
Mohammed was convicted in May 2008 in the District of Columbia on one count of distributing heroin for import to the United States and one count of narco-terrorism, which involves using the proceeds from drug trafficking to finance terrorist activity. He was sentenced to life in prison.
“A violent jihadist and narcotics trafficker, Khan Mohammed sought to kill U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan using rockets. Today’s life sentences match the gravity of the crimes for which he was convicted,” Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division Matthew Friedrich said when Mohammed was convicted in 2008.
Khan’s life sentence was commuted by President Joe Biden as one of his final acts in office. The commutation was not announced to the public until the prisoner exchange was finalized and the Taliban released its two American prisoners.
“It’s a joy seeing your family and coming to your homeland. The greatest joy is to come and join your Muslim brothers,” Mohammed told Taliban-controlled media upon arriving in Afghanistan.
The Taliban described Mohammed’s release as the product of “long and fruitful negotiations” with the United States government.
“The Islamic Emirate looks positively at the actions of the United States of America that help the normalization and development of relations between the two countries,” the Taliban said.
The two Americans freed on Tuesday were Ryan Corbett, 42, and William Wallace McKenty, 69.
Corbett was a longtime resident of Afghanistan who fled after Biden’s disastrous withdrawal of American forces and the lightning-fast Taliban takeover in 2021. He returned in the summer of 2022 on a ten-day business trip and was kidnapped by the Taliban, who never charged him with a crime or granted him legal proceedings.
Corbett has reportedly been held in a solitary confinement for months on end and was allowed only three brief phone calls to his family. His health deteriorated dramatically during his confinement.
The U.S. government denounced Corbett’s detention as wrongful. The U.S. Congress introduced a bill in June 2024 demanding his release. Biden administration officials said they worked on the prisoner swap for Corbett for two years, concluding the deal just before President Biden left office.
Corbett’s wife Anna also visited with President-elect Donald Trump in Mar-a-Lago to ask for his help. The family thanked both the Biden and Trump administrations, and the government of Qatar, for helping to secure Ryan Corbett’s release.
“Our hearts are filled with overwhelming gratitude and praise to God for sustaining Ryan’s life and bringing him back home after what has been the most challenging and uncertain 894 days of our lives,” the family said in a statement on Tuesday.
Fewer details were made public about the other American detainee, William Wallace McKenty. Anonymous U.S. officials said his release was secured with the assistance of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), but they provided no details about his presence in Afghanistan or his capture by the Taliban.
McKenty’s family reportedly asked the U.S. government to keep his identity confidential but the left-wing New York Times (NYT) and several other outlets reported his name.
The Biden administration reportedly tried to include two other American prisoners named George Glenzmann and Mahmoud Habibi in the trade, but could not reach an agreement with the Taliban.
Glenzmann is a former airline mechanic, while Habibi is a naturalized U.S. citizen who was kidnapped soon after the United States killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in an August 2022 drone strike in Kabul. Taliban officials claim they do not know what became of Habibi after he disappeared.
“It was our hope that Ryan, George and Mahmoud would be returned to their families together, and we cannot imagine the pain that our good fortune will bring them,” Ryan Corbett’s family said in their statement on his release.
The NYT hinted that the Taliban might have refused to release Glenzmann and/or Habibi because they hope to make another trade for Muhammad Rahim, an Afghan national held at Guantánamo Bay since 2008 on suspicion of being an al-Qaeda operative. Rahim’s lawyers insist he was merely a “courier” and “translator” for al-Qaeda and had no knowledge of the group’s terrorist operations.
“The former administration seems to have missed an opportunity to bring an American home in an exchange for a person with no intelligence or security value to the United States,” lawyer James G. Connell III told the NYT.
Habibi’s family said on Tuesday they were unsatisfied with Biden’s efforts to secure his freedom, and were confident Trump would make a “greater effort.”
“We know they have evidence my brother is alive and in Taliban hands and it could have been influential in encouraging the Taliban to admit they have him,” Habibi’s brother Ahmed said, criticizing the Biden team for refusing to use that evidence in negotiations.
“We know Trump is about results and we have faith he will use every tool available to get Mahmood home,” Ahmed said.
