The United States has indicted a Ugandan man over an alleged $58 million plot to arm a notorious Mexican drug cartel. Federal prosecutors in Virginia say Michael Katungi Mpeirwe conspired to supply the Jalisco New Generation Cartel with military-grade weapons, including machine guns, rocket launchers, grenades, sniper rifles, and anti-aircraft systems.
The indictment, unsealed in the Eastern District of Virginia, alleges the group sought falsified arms control documents to mask the weapons’ destination. Investigators say the network tested its smuggling routes by sending 50 AK-47 assault rifles from Bulgaria, using them as a prelude to larger shipments.
Mpeirwe is accused alongside Bulgarian national Peter Dimitrov Mirchev, Kenyan national Elisha Odhiambo Asumo, and Tanzanian national Subiro Osmund Mwapinga. The alleged plans went beyond rifles and explosives, prosecutors claim, extending to surface-to-air missiles, anti-aircraft drones, and ZU-23 anti-aircraft cannons.
The Jalisco cartel was designated a foreign terrorist organization in February, making any weapons sales to it a crime under US and international law. If convicted, the defendants face a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and a possible maximum of life in federal prison.
