The CJNG’s Weapons Were Supplied by a Bulgarian Trafficker, Who Offered Rocket Launchers, Grenades, and Rifles

The Jalisco New Generation Cartel procured military-grade weaponry through a Bulgarian trafficker who offered them everything from sniper rifles to rocket launchers. 

It was the U.S. Department of Justice that revealed that a Bulgarian national appeared before a federal court after being extradited from Spain for distributing weapons to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. 

Peter Dimitrov Mirchev faces charges alongside Asumo, the Tanzanian national Subiro, and the Ugandan national Michael Katungi. All of them are accused of conspiring to illegally supply military-grade weaponry to Mexican drug cartels, specifically the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. 

Peter Dimitrov faces charges of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and to possess firearms—including machine guns, rocket launchers, grenades, night-vision equipment, sniper rifles, anti-personnel mines, and anti-aircraft weapons. 

Furthermore, he allegedly recruited Asumo to illegally obtain an end-user certificate from a country that would falsely declare a different recipient for the weapons. 

Asumo and Yapinga allegedly obtained an end-user certificate from the United Republic of Tanzania authorizing the importation of AK-47s. 

According to the Department of Justice, Mirchev had previously been implicated in supplying weapons to Victor Bolat, who was convicted of conspiracy to murder U.S. citizens, among several other charges. 

Mirchev was arrested by Spanish authorities in Madrid on April 8; if convicted, he faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and up to life imprisonment. 

The firepower of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel has been of a very high caliber for several years now; one example demonstrating this was the attack on a Mexican Air Force Cougar helicopter. 

It was on May 1, 2015—during the six-year term of PRI member Enrique Peña Nieto, that the cartel shot down this aircraft in the municipality of Villa Purificación, Jalisco, using a Russian-made RPG launcher to prevent the capture of “El Mencho.” 

This incident left approximately seven members of the military dead. Furthermore, during the operation carried out on February 22—in which the capo was killed—federal forces reported that a helicopter came under attack, forcing it to make an emergency landing. Do you believe that apprehending these foreign suppliers would truly weaken the cartels’ firepower in Mexico?

Source: El Universal