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U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner, a Houston native, has been released from Russian custody in a prisoner exchange, President Joe Biden said Thursday morning.
“Moments ago I spoke to Brittney Griner. She is safe. She is on a plane. She is on her way home,” Biden said in a tweet announcing the release.
Griner was arrested in a Moscow airport in February after airport officials discovered vape canisters and cannabis oil in her luggage.
She was sentenced to nine years in Russian prison for smuggling illegal drugs into the country.
The White House called the legal proceedings a “sham.” Griner pleaded guilty to the charges in September and apologized for the incident, calling it an “honest mistake.”
Griner was a star on the Baylor University Lady Bears basketball team from 2009-13.
She has played for the Phoenix Mercury since the 2013 draft and also played basketball in China and Russia during the offseasons.
Her release was negotiated in exchange for the release of Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, nicknamed “the Merchant of Death,