Mali Zvornik: Four Held, Suspected of 66,000 Euro Theft
Four young men were arrested at the Mali Zvornik border crossing after a pistol and ammunition were found in their car. They are suspected of stealing more than 66,000 euros and a hunting rifle from a house near Livno in Bosnia.
- Four young men were arrested at the Mali Zvornik border crossing: L. K. (22), F. D. (21), S. K. (20) and L. K. (23).
- A pistol with a magazine and five bullets was found during a vehicle search, leaving the suspects facing weapons charges.
- They are suspected of first stealing 66,245 euros and a "Browning" hunting rifle from a house near Livno in Bosnia.
- The case was confirmed on July 13 by the Interior Ministry, Tanjug and RTS, alongside media reports.
Police stopped a car carrying four young men at the Mali Zvornik border crossing as they were preparing to enter Serbia. A search of the vehicle turned up a pistol with its magazine and five bullets. All four were arrested, and for now their names are known only by their initials: L. K. (22), F. D. (21), S. K. (20) and L. K. (23).
According to the Interior Ministry, the suspects are charged with the unauthorized possession, carrying and trafficking of weapons and ammunition. It is an offense that carries a prison sentence, and the recovered pistol has been sent for further processing and forensic examination. Guilt, it should be stressed, has not been established by a final court ruling, and the competent prosecutor’s office will decide on the next steps.
What is believed to have led up to the arrest
The stop at the border, investigators suspect, was not the start of the story but its end. According to the inquiry, before reaching Mali Zvornik the four had been in neighboring Bosnia and Herzegovina, near the town of Livno. There, it is claimed, sits a family house from which a large sum of money went missing.
The amount in question is 66,245 euros, and along with it, according to the suspicion, a “Browning” hunting rifle was taken. If this sequence is confirmed, the arrest at Mali Zvornik takes on a very different weight: this is not merely an armed group stopped at a crossing, but suspects who, in the investigators’ version, tried to carry their haul across the border.
That cross-border element is exactly what makes the case more complex. A crime suspected of being committed in Bosnia and an arrest carried out in Serbia require cooperation between two jurisdictions. The recovered pistol will be handled by the Serbian justice system, while the suspected theft, if confirmed to have taken place near Livno, could fall to authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Why would an armed group choose the border crossing?
The answer, however odd it may seem, is fairly mundane. A border crossing is a point everyone must pass through sooner or later, and it is also where checks are strictest. For someone trying to leave a place where a crime is suspected of having been committed, the crossing is both the exit and the trap.
Five bullets and one pistol may not sound like a large arsenal, but in the context of a suspected cross-border theft, the weapon changes the character of the whole case. It moves the group from the category of suspects in a property offense into that of armed fugitives, with all the legal consequences that follow.
For now, what is known is what the police have announced: four arrests, one pistol, five bullets and a suspicion that stretches across the border. The rest, including how much money actually went missing and where the rifle ended up, is still for the investigation to establish. In your view, how decisive is border control today in catching suspects fleeing from a neighboring country?
