International arms trafficking: Morocco helps bring down suppliers of a Mexican cartel

Kenyan Elisha Odhiambo Asumo was apprehended in Casablanca thanks to the joint intervention of the General Directorate of National Security (DGSN) and the General Directorate of Territorial Surveillance (DGST). In close coordination with the American authorities, he was extradited on March 11 to the United States.

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This vast operation also led to the arrest of Bulgarian Peter Dimitrov Mirchev in Madrid and Tanzanian Subiro Osmund Mwapinga in Accra. Presented on March 20 before a federal court in Virginia, the Bulgarian suspect, suspected of past links with the famous trafficker Viktor Bout, is accused of having supplied rocket launchers and precision rifles to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). Ugandan Michael Katungi Mpweire remains, however, untraceable.

Since 2022, this criminal network has been falsifying end-user certificates to arm this Mexican organization, in order to facilitate the shipment of cocaine to the American territory. The court documents reveal that an initial test shipment of fifty AK-47 rifles and ammunition had already left Bulgaria using documents obtained through Tanzania.

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Prosecutors estimate that other massive deliveries were planned, including surface-to-air missiles and advanced anti-aircraft systems, for a total value of around $58 million. Prosecuted for a conspiracy related to drug and arms trafficking, the defendants face a minimum sentence of ten years in prison, which could go up to life imprisonment.