Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Chairman of the Patriotic League of Uganda (PLU), has announced the removal of Michael Katungi Mpeirwe as Commissioner for External Affairs and from the movement’s Central Committee.
Muhoozi said that going forward, only the Chairman will appoint PLU’s foreign committees.
The move comes after U.S. federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia unsealed an indictment charging Katungi and three other foreign nationals, a Bulgarian, a Kenyan, and a Tanzanian, in a sweeping arms trafficking and narco-terrorism conspiracy.
According to the indictment, the four allegedly conspired since at least September 2022 to supply Mexican drug cartel CJNG with military-grade weapons including machineguns, rocket launchers, anti-aircraft systems, and explosives.
The CJNG, designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization in February 2025, is one of Mexico’s most violent transnational criminal groups.
U.S. authorities say Katungi, identified in court documents as Michael Katungi Mpeirwe, acted as part of an international procurement chain to illegally obtain arms control documents and disguise the weapons’ true destination.
The indictment details a test shipment of 50 AK-47 rifles from Bulgaria using fraudulent end-user certificates, and outlines plans for further deliveries worth over €53 million.
One suspect, Bulgarian national Peter Dimitrov Mirchev, is alleged to have previously supplied arms to convicted Russian trafficker Viktor Bout.
Arrests in the case have been made in Spain, Morocco, and Ghana, but Katungi remains at large. If convicted, the defendants face a minimum of 10 years to life in U.S. federal prison.
The case, part of “Operation Take Back America,” was investigated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration with assistance from international law enforcement agencies in Greece, Ghana, Morocco, and Spain.
