Bashir Noorzai

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Bashir Noorzai is a former Afghan drug lord and an early supporter of the Taliban who later worked with some U.S. officials. He fought the Soviet invasion in the 1980s and helped run Kandahar after Mullah Omar went into hiding. After the 9/11 attacks, he met with people he described as American military officials and later cooperated with the U.S., providing information and turning over weapons in 2002.

He was sanctioned as a major narcotics trafficker in 2004 and was arrested in New York in 2005 for allegedly smuggling heroin into the United States. He was convicted in 2008 and sentenced to life in prison in 2009. After the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan, he was released in a 2022 prisoner exchange for American contractor Mark Frerichs, arriving at Kabul airport on September 19, 2022.