Afridi grew up in the Landi Kotal, the principal city located in Khyber Pass, Khyber Agency. He was an ethnic Pashtun belonging to the Afridi tribe of Zakha Khel. He started life as a truck driver but quickly used his transportation connections to make a small fortune smuggling gold. In the 1980s he forged close ties with Pakistan's military led by general Zia ul-Haq. On November 24, 2009, Afridi suffered a heart attack and subsequently died. At the time of his death, Afridi was in his 70s. He is buried in the Ayub Afridi Kalay, Landi Kotal.
Afridi was a key player in the Soviet–Afghan War. In close collaboration with the CIA, he was able to supplement huge amounts of money for the Mujahideen in Afghanistan through his growing of poppies to supply the heroin trade. Using his smuggling network to move weapons supplied by the CIA to the mujahidin rebels fighting inside Afghanistan. Afridi used the same channels to move Afghan opium to secret laboratories in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas. Afridi was elected as a Member of National Assembly, Pakistan, in 1990. He contested the election as a free candidate from Khyber Agency.
1995 arrest
In December 1995, the Americans were able to trick Afridi into leaving his sanctuary in Afghanistan and coming to Pakistan by promising him right of passage. As soon as he touched down in Pakistan, he was arrested in connection with importing hashish into Belgium. He served three years of his sentence before being shipped to Pakistan on 25 August 1999 after serving a three and a half-year sentence in a US prison and paying a 50,000-dollar fine. An agreement was reached where he would face another trial in Pakistan. In Pakistan he was given a seven-year sentence for the same charge, exporting hashish into Belgium. He only served a few weeks of his sentence. Most of his property at various posh areas in Pakistan was confiscated by the Government of Pakistan. As is the custom in with the Maliks of the area, in mid-eighties he built a well-fortified residence, known as Ayub Afridi Kalay, in Landi Kotal in Khyber Agency.
2001 release
After the September 11 attacks he was freed from prison in Karachi after serving just a few weeks of a seven-year sentence for the export of 6.5 tons of hashish, seized at Antwerp, Belgium, in the 1980s. He had also been fined 4 million rupees. No reasons were given for Afridi's release, or under which legislation he was allowed to return to his home town in Khyber Agency in Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
