Two Americans being held in Afghanistan have been freed by the Taliban in exchange for a “violent jihadist and narcotics trafficker” serving life in California — just hours after President Trump was back in the White House, officials said Tuesday.
Ryan Corbett and William McKenty were en route back to the United States early Tuesday in exchange for Khan Mohammed — who was the first person to be convicted on US narco-terrorism laws.
Mohammed — who the US Justice Department previously said had “sought to kill US soldiers in Afghanistan using rockets” — had already landed back in Kabul, the Taliban said early Tuesday.
Corbett, one of the Americans freed, was detained by the Taliban back in August 2022 while there on a business trip.
“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,” his family said in a statement.
His family praised Trump as well as Biden — who botched the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 — for their efforts in freeing him.
McKenty was the second American released, sources told CNN and the New York Times. No details have emerged about his identity, what he was doing in Afghanistan or when he was detained there.
Although the prisoner swap was spearheaded by the Biden administration, the exchange only came as Trump was sworn back into office Monday.
Mohammed, the Afghani man, had been detained on the battlefield in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province and later taken to the US decades ago.
A federal jury later convicted him on charges of securing heroin and opium that he knew were bound for the US and, in doing so, assisting terrorism activity.
The Justice Department, at the time, referred to Mohammed as “a violent jihadist and narcotics trafficker” who “sought to kill US soldiers in Afghanistan using rockets.”
He was the first person to be convicted on US narco-terrorism laws.
Prior to leaving office, Biden’s administration had been trying to work out a deal to free Corbett as well as George Glezmann and Mahmood Habib in exchange for Muhammad Rahim, one of the remaining detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
Glezmann, an airline mechanic from Atlanta, was taken by the Taliban’s intelligence services in December 2022 while traveling through the country.
Habibi, an Afghan-American businessman who worked as a contractor for a Kabul-based telecommunications company, also went missing in 2022. The Taliban, though, have denied they have Habibi.
Habibi’s family welcomed the latest prisoner exchange and said they were confident the Trump administration would make a “greater effort” to free him — as they expressed frustration with the Biden team.
“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 in a statement.
“The Biden NSC (National Security Council) refused to use it. We know Trump is about results and we have faith he will use every tool available to get Mahmood home.”
With Post wires
