Bulgarian Arms Trafficker Provided Mexican Cartel Terrorists with Catalog of Rockets, Tanks

While Mexican government officials continue to point to the United States as the main source of weapons for drug cartels, a federal indictment filed in a U.S. court in Virginia revealed that a Bulgarian arms trafficker was providing terrorist cartels with catalogues of weapons that included rocket launchers, surface-to-air weapons systems, and tanks.

The indictment filed against Peter Dimitrov Mirchev and two co-conspirators from Africa reveals a complex operation to supply Mexico’s Cartel Jalisco New Generation (CJNG) with high-end military weapons, including machine guns, rocket launchers, grenades, night vision equipment, sniper rifles, anti-personnel mines, and anti-aircraft weapons. CJNG is designated by the U.S. Department of State as a foreign terrorist organization.

The conspiracy began in 2022, when Mirchev and his associates met with representatives of CJNG and planned the purchase of weapons. The group had a test run where they sent 50 AK-47 rifles to cartel gunmen in Mexico.