Near Nis: 70 grenades and two rockets seized
Police found 70 hand grenades, two rocket launchers and two assault rifles in an unregistered car on the road between Aleksinac and Nis. An investigation is under way.
- An unregistered car near Nis was found to hold 70 hand grenades, two rocket launchers and two assault rifles.
- The operation was led by several units, including the Criminal Police Directorate, the organized crime service and the Gendarmerie, with the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Nis.
- According to police intelligence, the weapons were allegedly meant for sale on the black market at home and abroad.
- An investigation is under way to establish all the circumstances and identify those linked to the smuggling.
Police stopped an unregistered car on a local road between Aleksinac and Nis and found a genuine arsenal inside. The haul consisted of 70 hand grenades, two rocket launchers and two automatic weapons. The vehicle, a Daewoo, was traveling along a lightly used stretch when it was intercepted.
The operation took place on June 15. Several units took part: the Criminal Police Directorate, the service for combating organized crime, the Gendarmerie and the Nis Police Department. The case is being coordinated by the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Nis.
According to police intelligence, the weapons were allegedly meant for sale and distribution on the black market, both in Serbia and abroad. That assessment still has to be verified through further proceedings.
What does the seizure say about the arms market?
The quantity of recovered weaponry points beyond a single incident. Seventy grenades and two rocket launchers are not items for personal use, but a stock that suggests an organized supply and resale channel. Wartime weapons left over from earlier decades still occasionally surface on the region’s illegal market.
Police say the arms were ready for further distribution. Such shipments usually cross borders, so this seizure is viewed in a wider context, not merely as a local case. The authorities are working to establish where the arsenal came from and who it was intended for.
For now, no names of people linked to the vehicle have been officially released. At this stage of the proceedings, the identity of any suspects remains protected until the investigation is complete. Any judgment about guilt before the case concludes would be premature.
How is the investigation proceeding?
The investigation is under way. The competent authorities are working to determine all the circumstances under which the weapons ended up in the vehicle, and to identify those linked to the smuggling. That work includes analyzing the weaponry itself and checking the route along which it was transported.
Seizures of this scale do not end with the stopping of a single car. Behind an individual shipment there is usually a network that organizes, finances and distributes it. That is why the case is being handled in a coordinated way, under prosecutorial supervision, in order to reach everyone in the chain.
Finding such a large quantity of weaponry on a local road raises the question of how many similar shipments pass unnoticed. In your view, how much do operations like this really shrink the illegal arms market?
