Griner case latest in string of high-profile prisoner swaps

Associated Press (AP) — Delicate negotiations between the United States and Russia led to basketball star Brittney Griner’s return in exchange for notorious arms dealer once nicknamed “the Merchant of Death.” It is the latest of a number of high-profile prisoner swaps involving Americans detained abroad. Perhaps the most famous came in 1962 when U-2 spy plane pilot Francis Gary Powers was exchanged on a German bridge for Russian spy Col. Rudolph Abel. The swap was depicted in Steven Spielberg’s 2015 movie “Bridge of Spies.” More recently, U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl spent nearly five years in captivity in Afghanistan before he was exchanged in 2014 for five Taliban prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay.