Ugandan to be extradited over arms-smuggling to Mexican cartels

Katungi Michael Mpeirwe, a retired lieutenant in the Ugandan army, is charged with conspiring to supply weapons to gangs including the notorious Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG).

Uganda's prosecution office said it had approved the extradition from the United States.

Mpeirwe was a close associate of Ugandan army chief Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the son of President Yoweri Museveni, who has been manoeuvring to take over the east African country.

Kainerugaba fired Mpeirwe as his party's director of external affairs after a US indictment was filed against him in July 2025.

The indictment from the US state of Virginia said Mpeirwe was alleged to be part of a conspiracy to smuggle machine guns, rocket launchers, grenades, night vision equipment, sniper rifles, anti-personnel mines, and anti-aircraft weapons to cartels including CJNG, described as "one of Mexico's most violent and prolific transnational criminal organisations".

It said he was working with a Bulgarian arms trafficker, Peter Dimitrov Mirchev, as well as two Kenyan and Tanzanian nationals, to transport the weapons from Bulgaria to Tanzania, and onwards to the cartel.

"The defendants allegedly continued to conspire to supply drug cartels with even more weaponry, potentially including surface-to-air missiles, anti-aircraft drones, and the ZU-23 anti-aircraft weapon system," the indictment said.

Mirchev was previously implicated in supplying arms to Viktor Bout, the notorious Russian arms dealer who was returned to Russia in a prisoner exchange with the United States in 2022.

He was arrested in Spain in April 2025 and extradited to the United States earlier this year.