Two arrested at Belgrade airport with 32,330 euros in cash
Serbia's Interior Ministry says C. K. and Z. L. were stopped at Nikola Tesla Airport, and that one of them offered money twice, first to border police, then to anti-corruption officers.
Two Chinese nationals were arrested at Nikola Tesla Airport in Belgrade on suspicion of money laundering, with 32,330 euros in cash found on them. The Serbian Interior Ministry (MUP) announced the case on July 30, 2026.
The suspects are C. K., born in 1976, and Z. L., born in 1977. The operation was carried out by the Anti-Corruption Service of the Criminal Police Directorate together with the Border Police Directorate, on the orders of the Belgrade Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office and its Special Department for Suppression of Corruption.
Money offered twice, minutes apart
According to the ministry, C. K. first offered money to border police officers so they would skip the identity check and the search. When that failed, MUP says the same man offered money to officers of the Anti-Corruption Service, this time so they would not detain him.
The cash is suspected of coming from criminal activity. Both men face a money laundering charge as co-perpetrators, and C. K. is additionally accused of bribery. They were ordered held for up to 48 hours.
Why two separate offences
The money laundering suspicion is about where the cash came from, meaning everything that happened before the two men reached the airport. The bribery accusation was created on the spot, in two attempts, and it applies to only one of them. That is why the ministry lists the two separately even though both surfaced during the same check.
The route of the case is also specific. Corruption offences in Belgrade do not follow the standard prosecutorial line, but go to the Special Department that ordered this operation.
How much cash can cross the border?
Declaring cash at the border is not a formality in Serbia. A traveller crossing the state border must declare 10,000 euros or more to customs, whether in dinars or in foreign currency. The 32,330 euros found here is more than three times that threshold, and the sum alone is enough to turn an arrivals desk into a checkpoint rather than a corridor.
That is where the airport part ends. Where the money actually came from will be established later, in proceedings run by the prosecution.
What is still missing
Some Serbian outlets described the two as a 50-year-old and a 49-year-old. MUP published years of birth, 1976 and 1977, and those are the figures used here. Full names are withheld because there is no final verdict.
The ministry did not say where the two had flown in from or where they were heading. It is also not known whether the cash was carried by one man or split between them, or whether either had been in Serbia before.
Once the detention period expires, the Belgrade Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office decides what happens next. Both men are presumed innocent until a final verdict.
