A 45-year-old Ugandan national, Michael Katungi Mpweire, has been extradited to the United States to face charges of conspiring to distribute cocaine, traffic firearms and provide material support to a foreign terrorist organisation, according to the US Department of Justice.
Katungi appeared in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, on October 8, 2026, following his extradition from Uganda.
According to an indictment announced by the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, Katungi and three foreign nationals allegedly conspired to supply military-grade weapons to Mexican drug cartels, particularly the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG).
The alleged conspiracy dates back to at least September 2022 and involved Bulgarian national Peter Dimitrov Mirchev, Kenyan national Elisha Odhiambo Asumo and Tanzanian national Subiro Osmund Mwapinga.
US prosecutors allege that the group planned to supply the cartel with machine guns, rocket launchers, grenades, sniper rifles, anti-personnel mines, night-vision equipment and anti-aircraft weapons.
The indictment states that the defendants believed the cartel intended to use the weapons to facilitate the trafficking of large quantities of cocaine into the United States.
On February 20, 2025, the US designated CJNG a foreign terrorist organisation under its Immigration and Nationality Act and a specially designated global terrorist under Executive Order 13224.
Alleged weapons transactions
According to the indictment, Mirchev allegedly negotiated arms deals with individuals claiming to represent the cartel and recruited Asumo to obtain an end-user certificate from a country that would falsely identify the intended recipient of the weapons.
Prosecutors allege that Asumo, Katungi and Mwapinga obtained an end-user certificate from Tanzania authorising the importation of AK-47 rifles.
Using the document, Mirchev and others allegedly exported 50 automatic AK-47 rifles, together with magazines and ammunition, from Bulgaria in a test shipment intended for the cartel.
The group allegedly planned further transactions involving more sophisticated weaponry, potentially including surface-to-air missiles, anti-aircraft drones and the ZU-23 anti-aircraft weapon system.
Mirchev allegedly compiled a weapons list valued at approximately €53.7 million, equivalent to about US$58 million. Prosecutors claim that Katungi, Asumo and Mwapinga agreed to provide additional arms-control documents intended to conceal the cartel as the weapons’ intended recipient.
Co-accused plead guilty
The US Department of Justice said Asumo and Mwapinga pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine on July 23 and September 9, 2026, respectively.
Asumo is scheduled to be sentenced on November 4, 2026, while Mwapinga’s sentencing is scheduled for January 13, 2027.
Mirchev was arrested in Madrid, Spain, on April 8, 2025, and extradited to the United States on March 19, 2026.
Court records cited by US prosecutors also link Mirchev to a previous arms-trafficking case involving Viktor Bout, who was convicted in the United States of offences including conspiring to kill US nationals and provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organisation.
Possible sentence
If convicted on the charges against him, Katungi faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum of life imprisonment, the Justice Department said.
The department noted that the actual sentence, if he is convicted, would be determined by a federal judge after considering the US Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
The case was investigated by the US Drug Enforcement Administration’s Special Operations Division, Bilateral Investigations Unit, with assistance from the US Department of War.
The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs coordinated extradition efforts with several international partners, including Ugandan authorities, the ministry responsible for justice and constitutional affairs, and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
First Assistant US Attorney Theophani K. Stamos and DEA Associate Chief of Operations Frank Tarentino announced the case. Assistant US Attorneys Anthony T. Aminoff, Edgardo J. Rodriguez and Luke Albi are prosecuting it.
The prosecution is part of the US Homeland Security Task Force initiative, which targets criminal cartels, transnational criminal organisations and human trafficking networks operating in the United States and abroad.
Katungi has been charged but has not been convicted. The US Department of Justice emphasised that an indictment is an accusation and that he is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
