Who is Konstantin Yaroshenko?
A RUSSIAN pilot was freed from US custody amidst the ongoing war in Ukraine.
The release of Konstantin Yaroshenko comes more than a decade after he was detained by the US.
Who is Konstantin Yaroshenko?
Konstantin Yaroshenko, 53, has been held in US custody since 2010 when he was arrested and sentenced to prison on drug smuggling charges.
Yaroshenko was born near the Ukrainian border in Rostov-on-don in southwest Russia in 1968 and had a relatively normal upbringing, reported.
He attended a civilian flight school after serving three years in the Russian military, but when he left the flight school and returned to the factory where he worked, he encountered difficult times.
It was after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, that Yaroshenko went to find ways to make money including working with transportation flight crews in Africa and driving a taxi when he was home.
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Everything changed in 2010 when Yaroshenko was approached by Paddy McKay, an acquaintance who said he needed someone to assist with a transportation job and they would be well-paid for their efforts.
In March of that year, McKay introduced Yaroshenko to Nabil Hage who told him if he helped with the shipment and future shipments of cocaine, he would be paid millions of dollars.
Yaroshenko met with Chigbo Umeh, a convicted drug smuggler from Liberia, who arranged for Yaroshenko to handle the transportation of more than four tons of cocaine in exchange for $4.5million.
The cocaine would be shipped from Venezuela to Liberia and Yaroshenko was reportedly told he would be paid an additional $1.2million to bring some of the drugs to Ghana from Liberia.
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The US and Liberian governments had been tracking Umeh's plan to smuggle drugs to their respective countries and moved in to arrest Umeh only days after Yaroshenko agreed to the plan.
What happened to Konstantin Yaroshenko?
The United States Enforcement Administration and the Government of Liberia carried out a joint undercover operation titled Operation Relentless in 2010.
Yaroshenko was found to be a part of the drug smuggling plot and was arrested in Liberia on May 28, 2010.
Two days later, Yaroshenko was handed over to US authorities and was brought to the US to await his sentencing.
Yaroshenko received only one felony conspiracy charge for the plot to smuggle cocaine out of South America because the drugs had not yet been transported at the time of his arrest.
According to , the operation found that Yaroshenko had "agreed to play a vital role in a vast, international drug conspiracy that attempted to transform the country of Liberia into a transshipment hub for ton quantities of cocaine."
The documents revealed that Yaroshenko planned to smuggle cocaine from South America to Liberia, the US, and other countries.
He was convicted on September 7, 2011, and has been held at a facility in Danbury, Connecticut, where he was serving a 20-year sentence.
Why was Konstantin Yaroshenko released?
President Joe Biden made an agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin to release Yaroshenko in exchange for the release of former US marine, Trevor Reed.
Putin had previously offered to release American prisoners in exchange for Yaroshenko in 2019 and alternatively asked then-President Donald Trump to pardon him.
The request was denied at the time, but Biden revisited the conversation after pleas from Reed's family to do what they could to bring him home.
Reed had been held in Russian detention since 2020 for allegedly being drunk in public and endangering the "life and health” of Russian police officers, the .
Reed denied the allegations, saying the charges against him were "politically motivated."
Biden agreed to release Yaroshenko in exchange for Reed and the swap took place in Turkey on April 27, 2022.
Upon Reed's return home, Biden said in a : "The negotiations that allowed us to bring Trevor home required difficult decisions that I do not take lightly.”
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said, "Using wrongful detention as a bargaining chip represents a threat to the safety of everyone working, traveling, and living abroad."
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Yaroshenko was returned to his home in Russia and when his wife, Viktoria, heard that he would be coming home, she told the Washington Post, "They told me that he was coming today.
"I want to cry. I will be going to the airport.”
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