United States of America’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) detectives are back to the drawing board after learning that former Patriotic League of Uganda (PLU) boss in charge of external relations and also the former African Union policy adviser Michael Katungi Mpeirwe has widened the extradition process against him.
Highly placed sources at the American embassy in Kampala revealed to Ono Bwino that detectives assigned to deal with Katungi’s extradition process were shocked with the prolonged trial which they thought will be sealed within a period of only one month.
“All the paperwork from the Attorney General’s chambers and Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister were secured after meeting the president who okayed the operation. But now fresh consultations are underway on how to overcome the endless Court battles,” a source privy to the details of this investigation told Ono Bwino.
The development comes hours after the American embassy in Kampala learnt that the Constitutional Court is in the process of establishing a panel of seven justices to preside over Katungi’s Constitutional petition where he is challenging his extradition.
The development comes after Justice Simon Peter Kinobe of the Civil Division of the High Court stayed the extradition proceedings against Katungi before Buganda Road Chief Magistrate Ritah Kidasa Wanyama.
One of the lawyers handling the matter told Ono Bwino that Katungi’s extradition application before Kidasa will only proceed after the Supreme Court pronounces itself on the matter.
In his petition, Katungi argues that part of United States of American indictment cites his conduct predating the formal designation of the Mexico’s Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) as a terrorist group, which conflicts with constitutional protections against retroactive criminal punishment.
However, sources close to Katungi revealed that America can violate the extradition process and decide to forcefully abduct Katungi as they did to former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores
Because of this scare, Katungi no longer associates with fellow inmates at Luzira Murchison Bay prison and he is always in the prison’s hospital even though doctors discharged him two weeks back.
“Being a security officer, he participated in a number of operations which resulted into incarceration of a number of inmates who are currently imprisoned in Luzira. So he is scared that those individuals can carry out revenge on him.” a source added.
The United States of America government requested the Ugandan government to extradite Katungi to the United States so that he faces alleged drug trafficking, arms smuggling and terrorism-related offences.
According to the indictment filed in the United States, Katungi is accused together with Bulgarian national Peter Dimitrov Mirchev, Kenyan national Elisha Odhiambo Asumo and Tanzanian national Subiro Osmund Mwapinga, of conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine, allegedly knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that the drugs would be unlawfully imported into the United States.
The four are also accused of conspiring to possess firearms, including machine guns and destructive devices, in furtherance of a drug trafficking offence, and of conspiring to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organisation.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, investigators allege that from at least September 2022, the suspects conspired to supply military-grade weapons to the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), one of Mexico’s most powerful transnational criminal organisations.
The alleged weapons included machine guns, rocket launchers, grenades, sniper rifles, anti-personnel mines, night-vision equipment, anti-aircraft weapons and surface-to-air missile systems.
U.S. authorities allege the suspects believed the cartel intended to use the weapons to facilitate large-scale cocaine trafficking into the United States.
On February 20, 2025, the CJNG was designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation under the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under Executive Order 13224.
According to the indictment, Mirchev allegedly recruited Asumo to obtain a fraudulent End-User Certificate (EUC) from an African country to conceal the intended destination of the weapons. Asumo is then alleged to have recruited Katungi, who in turn recruited Mwapinga.
Prosecutors allege the group obtained an end-user certificate from Tanzania authorising the importation of AK-47 rifles. Using that documentation, Mirchev and others allegedly exported a test shipment of 50 AK-47 assault rifles, magazines and ammunition from Bulgaria, intending that the weapons would ultimately reach the CJNG.
The indictment further alleges that the group later planned to supply weapons worth approximately Shs224bn including anti-aircraft systems and drones, while using falsified arms control documentation to disguise the true end user.
Court records also indicate that Mirchev had previously been implicated in supplying arms to convicted international arms trafficker Viktor Bout.
