Katungi Mpeirwe faces US extradition in cartel arms case

Ugandan prosecutors have agreed to extradite retired army lieutenant Katungi Michael Mpeirwe to the United States on charges that he conspired to supply about $54 million worth of weapons to Mexican drug cartels.

Mpeirwe, a former close associate of Ugandan army chief Muhoozi Kainerugaba, is accused in a US indictment from Virginia of working with Bulgarian arms trafficker Peter Dimitrov Mirchev and Kenyan and Tanzanian co-accused to move weapons from Bulgaria to Tanzania and then to cartels including Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion.

The indictment alleges the planned weapons included machine guns, rocket launchers, grenades, night-vision equipment, sniper rifles, anti-personnel mines and anti-aircraft weapons. It also alleges the defendants continued to seek more weaponry, potentially including surface-to-air missiles, anti-aircraft drones and the ZU-23 anti-aircraft weapon system.

Kainerugaba, the son of President Yoweri Museveni, fired Mpeirwe as his party's director of external affairs after the US indictment was filed in July 2025. Mpeirwe was arrested in June after continuing to live in Kampala while co-accused people were already in custody in other countries.

A Ugandan security source said Mpeirwe was a former military intelligence officer who also had a diplomatic career. Mirchev was arrested in Spain in April 2025 and extradited to the United States earlier this year.