Uganda extradited former army officer Michael Katonji Mbirwe to the United States late last week to face charges of conspiring to supply military weapons to a Mexican drug cartel. Katonji was formerly a leader in a political group headed by Uganda’s army chief, General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the son of President Yoweri Museveni.
US charges allege arming drug cartels
An indictment filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia accuses Katonji and three others—a Bulgarian, a Kenyan and a Tanzanian—of conspiring since at least September 2022 to supply Mexican drug cartels, particularly the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, with military weapons valued at about 53.7 million euros, or approximately 58 million US dollars. The US Justice Department announced the arrests of all four defendants.
Ugandan ruling paves way for extradition
The Justice Department said a conviction carries a sentence of at least 10 years and up to life in prison. On August 28, a Ugandan court ordered that Katonji remain in custody pending extradition and rejected his lawyers’ arguments concerning the authority of the officials who initiated the proceedings and diplomatic immunity linked to his former role as deputy head of a diplomatic mission.
The court ruled that extradition proceedings do not determine guilt or innocence, but only establish whether the evidence meets the legal threshold for referral to US courts. It found that the dual-criminality requirement had been met because the acts attributed to Katonji constitute crimes in both Uganda and the United States.
On September 1, Uganda’s justice minister directed the prison service to hand him over to an authorized representative of the US government before he was later transferred to the United States. Uganda and the United States have no bilateral extradition treaty, but Uganda’s Justice Ministry cited the 1988 United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances in its correspondence.
Former Ugandan officials and political figures criticized the extradition, calling for Ugandan citizens to be tried domestically for crimes they are accused of committing abroad. Katonji, a retired lieutenant, held security positions with the African Union in Addis Ababa and also served as deputy head of the Ugandan High Commission in Abuja.
He also handled foreign relations for the Uganda National League and was appointed an envoy to Haiti before the US indictment was issued, after which he was removed from the league’s executive committee.
