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Ugandan army chief Muhoozi Kainerugaba’s former confidant Katungi Michael Mpeirwe has been extradited to the United States (US) over an alleged $54 million weapons plot involving Mexican drug cartels.
Uganda’s Commissioner General of Prisons, Johnson Byabashaija, confirmed the extradition to AFP on Saturday.
Mpeirwe was among four suspects charged by US authorities in July with allegedly conspiring to supply weapons to Mexican drug cartels.
The suspects allegedly planned to provide about $54 million worth of weapons, including machine guns, rocket launchers and anti-personnel mines.
US prosecutors also accused the group of seeking to supply surface-to-air missiles, drones and anti-aircraft guns to the cartels.
One of the alleged targets was the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), one of Mexico’s notorious drug trafficking groups.
Byabashaija said Mpeirwe “has been handed over to the United States authorities”.
“They have him now,” he told AFP.
Mpeirwe, a former military intelligence officer and diplomat, is a close associate of Kainerugaba, whose father is Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.
A Ugandan security source said Mpeirwe was arrested on June 27 in an upscale area of Kampala and appeared in court two days later.
The Ugandan judiciary announced at the end of August that his extradition was imminent.
Mpeirwe is accused alongside a Bulgarian, a Kenyan and a Tanzanian national in the alleged weapons trafficking plot.
