Illinois Navy Veteran Held Captive In Afghanistan Since 2020 To Be Released

LOMBARD, IL — Mark Frerichs, a contractor and Navy veteran from Illinois who was held captive in Afghanistan for 31 months by the Taliban, has been released as part of a prisoner swap, according to reports.

Frerichs, 60, was released in exchange for a convicted Taliban drug lord jailed in the U.S., the Associated Press reported. Frerichs had spent more than a decade in Afghanistan as a civilian contractor, was working on civil engineering projects when he was abducted in January 2020 in Kabul and was believed to have been held since then by the Taliban-linked Haqqani network. He is from Lombard, according to WLS.

"His release is the culmination of years of tireless work by dedicated public servants across our government and other partner governments, and I want to thank them for all that effort," President Joe Biden said in a prepared statement.

"Bringing the negotiations that led to Mark’s freedom to a successful resolution required difficult decisions, which I did not take lightly. Our priority now is to make sure Mark receives a healthy and safe return and is given the space and time he needs to transition back into society."

Frerichs' sister, Charlene Cakora, who is also from Lombard, thanked U.S. government officials who helped secure her brother's release.

“I am so happy to hear that my brother is safe and on his way home to us," she said in a statement, the Associated Press reported. "Our family has prayed for this each day of the more than 31 months he has been a hostage. We never gave up hope that he would survive and come home safely to us."

Negotiations for Frerichs's release centered on a deal involving the release of Bashir Noorzai, a notorious drug lord and Taliban member, according to the Associated Press. The exchange is one of the most significant prisoner swaps to take place under the Biden administration, coming five months after a separate deal with Russia that resulted in the release of Marine veteran Trevor Reed.

"Everything about this case has been an uphill fight," Eric Lebson, a former national security official who advised Frerichs' family, said in a prepared statement published by WLS.

"Initially the Trump Administration gave 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. Mark's family then had to navigate two Administrations, where many people viewed Mark's safe return as an impediment to their plans for Afghanistan.

"... Mark is free today because there are people who truly want to bring Americans home from hostage or wrongful detention abroad and President Biden has shown he is among that group."

Frerichs was last seen in a video posted nearly six months ago by The New Yorker in which he appeared in traditional Afghan clothing and pleaded for his release, according to the Associated Press.

"It’s a profound relief that Mark Frerichs, a Navy Veteran who served our nation honorably, is now safely back in American hands after being kidnapped in Afghanistan more than two and a half years ago," U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat from Illinois and a veteran herself, said Monday on Twitter.

Biden said his administration would continue to prioritize the safe return of Americans wrongfully detained abroad in countries such as Burma, Haiti, Russia and Venezuela.

"I am deeply heartened by Mark’s long overdue release and the relief it will bring to him & his family," U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, said in a tweet. "The tragic and cruel use of him as a hostage has finally come to an end."

Noorzai was arrested in 2005 and charged with conspiring to import more than $50 million in heroin from Afghanistan and Pakistan into the U.S. and other countries, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. He was considered "one of the world's most-wanted drug kingpins" at the time, according to the DEA, and orchestrated the smuggling of hundreds of kilograms of heroin. Noorzai was also closely aligned with the Taliban, the DEA reported. In 2009, he was sentenced to life in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.