Bulgarian Arms Trafficker and Accomplices Indicted for Supplying Weapons to Mexican Cartels

The group used corruptly obtained end-user certificates from Tanzania to export 50 AK-47 rifles as a test shipment.

UNITED STATES — On July 30, 2025, an indictment was unsealed in the Eastern District of Virginia charging Peter Dimitrov Mirchev, a Bulgarian arms trafficker, and three African nationals with conspiring to distribute cocaine, possess firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking, and provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.

The group used corruptly obtained end-user certificates from Tanzania to export 50 AK-47 rifles as a test shipment

The defendants allegedly plotted to supply military-grade weaponry to the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación, one of Mexico's most violent transnational criminal organizations. This scheme involved falsified end-user certificates to mask the true recipients of the arms. The Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación was designated a foreign terrorist organization on February 20, 2025.

The indictment details a conspiracy beginning in September 2022, where Mirchev coordinated with Elisha Odhiambo Asumo from Kenya, Michael Katungi Mpeirwe from Uganda, and Subiro Osmund Mwapinga from Tanzania. They aimed to provide weapons such as machine guns, rocket launchers, grenades, sniper rifles, anti-personnel mines, and anti-aircraft systems.

The group used corruptly obtained end-user certificates from Tanzania to export 50 AK-47 rifles as a test shipment. Further plans included supplying advanced systems valued at approximately 53.7 million Euros.

Payments facilitated the scheme, including wires from U.S. accounts to Kenyan and Bulgarian banks. The defendants discussed using East Africa as a transshipment point for cocaine. Mirchev has a prior link to Viktor Bout, convicted of similar arms trafficking offenses. The conspiracy intended to aid the cartel's cocaine importation into the United States.

Arrests occurred on April 8, 2025, with Mirchev detained in Spain, Asumo in Morocco, and Mwapinga in Ghana, who was extradited on July 25, 2025. Mpeirwe remains at large. Convictions could result in sentences from 10 years to life imprisonment. The case underscores efforts to combat transnational crime through international cooperation.

Analysis of Indictment Implications