Juma Khan was an illiterate provincial Baloch drug smuggler from Nimruz Province in southwestern Afghanistan in the 1990s. He suddenly rose to national prominence after the American-led invasion of Afghanistan. He was briefly detained by American forces after the 2001 fall of the Taliban and released, even though American officials knew that he was involved in narcotics trafficking.[2] After being released, he inexplicably seized control of the town of Bahramcha in the Chagai Hills on the Pakistan-Iran-Afghanistan border in late 2001 and turned it into a hub of drug smuggling and gun running into Pakistan and Iran. Later Juma Khan allegedly went on to run the Taliban's opium and heroin distribution network, selling worldwide and using the profits to equip Taliban forces militarily. Despite being an ethnic Baloch he maintained close contact with the largely PashtunTaliban.[3]
In 2008, he was detained for unknown reasons in Indonesia and transported to New York. He was quietly released on April 20, 2018, without any pending charges or a trial.[5][6] No official explanation was provided.