Police seize 52 cars from Novi Pazar car lots
Serbian police checked six used-car lots in Novi Pazar in a single day, seized 52 passenger vehicles along with their paperwork and arrested four dealers.
Along with 52 passenger vehicles, police also drove off with the paperwork that came with them. Six used-car lots in Novi Pazar were checked in one sweep, and four owners were arrested.
Serbia’s Interior Ministry (MUP) said on July 31, 2026 that the cars were seized on suspicion that they had been the subject of illegal transactions. The seizure is temporary, meaning the vehicles stay in police custody. The scale is unusual for a single town: 52 cars pulled off just six lots on the same day.
Who was arrested, and on what grounds
The men in custody are A. H. (1980), Dz. B. (1982), S. S. (1969) and I. R. (1986), all from Novi Pazar. They are suspected of illegal trade, a criminal offence under Serbian law. Nothing has been proven, and the case now moves to prosecutors and, eventually, a court.
The arrests were carried out on the orders of the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Novi Pazar. Several police units took part:
- the Criminal Police Directorate
- the Crime Suppression Service
- the Department for Economic Crime
- the Novi Pazar Police Directorate
The ministry also published a photo gallery from the scene. It shows rows of second-hand cars parked on a gravel yard beside an office building, with their licence plates blurred out.
Four arrests or five?
The MUP statement lists four sets of initials and four birth years. Several outlets reported five arrests the same day. The official figure is four, and that is the one to work with until prosecutors say otherwise. A gap of one person in the first hours is common, because the number of people brought in and the number formally arrested tend to get mixed up.
What happens next
The suspects can be held for up to 48 hours. After that they are taken, with a criminal complaint attached, to the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Novi Pazar for questioning. The cars and their documents stay out of circulation while the checks run.
For the lots themselves, this bites. Fifty-two cars removed from six locations means a chunk of the town’s used-car supply disappeared from the tarmac overnight, and the documents those cars were sold on are now with the police. Only once the origin of each vehicle is established will it be clear how many go back to their owners and how many stay tied up in the case.
