Savski Venac arrest: heroin, hashish and pistol seized
Police found a pistol with a ground-off serial number, 99 rounds of ammunition and several kilograms of suspected drugs in two flats. The suspect was held for up to 48 hours.
The Savski Venac police station has arrested M. S. (2007) on suspicion of unlawfully producing and selling narcotic drugs and of illegally possessing and carrying a firearm, ammunition and explosive materials. The arrest was made on the order of the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade, the Interior Ministry (MUP) said.
What did police find in the two flats?
The search ran in two steps. In the first flat, where the suspect stays without being registered, police found about 20 grams of plant material suspected to be marijuana. The Ministry calls the second flat a “stash flat,” and that is where most of the haul turned up. The Ministry published the inventory this way:
Police first searched a flat where the suspect stays without being registered and found about 20 grams of plant material suspected to be marijuana, while in the second flat, a so-called “stash flat,” they found a pistol with its magazine and a ground-off factory serial number, 99 rounds of ammunition of various calibers, one pen gun, two kilograms of powder suspected to be heroin, about 1.5 kilograms of a substance suspected to be hashish, about a kilogram of powder resembling amphetamine, about five kilograms of plant material resembling marijuana, three digital scales, and about a kilogram of powder suspected to be a cutting base for mixing heroin.
According to that inventory, the stash flat held:
- a pistol with a magazine and a ground-off factory serial number
- 99 rounds of ammunition of various calibers and one pen gun
- about two kilograms of powder suspected to be heroin
- about 1.5 kilograms of a substance suspected to be hashish
- about a kilogram of a substance resembling amphetamine and about five kilograms of a substance resembling marijuana
- three digital scales and about a kilogram of a substance suspected to be a base for mixing heroin
For every substance, MUP uses the wording “suspected to be” or “resembling,” which means these are suspicions, not established compositions.
What do Novosti and the Interior Ministry say?
The figures in the two sources do not fully match. Novosti reports that searches “at several locations” turned up about two kilograms of heroin, about five kilograms of cannabis, a kilogram of speed, 1.4 kilograms of hashish and 30 grams of cocaine, which, going by that paper’s headline, adds up to about 9.5 kilograms of drugs. It also cites 100 rounds instead of 99, a pistol with no serial number, a set of scales, and 650 euros and 50,000 dinars in cash.
Cocaine and cash do not appear in the MUP statement used here, while Novosti, for its part, does not mention the pen gun or the kilogram of heroin-mixing base that MUP lists. Novosti describes the suspect as a 19-year-old, whereas MUP gives only the year of birth.
What is the suspect charged with?
The Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade, as relayed by Novosti, said the suspect is accused of unauthorized production of and trade in narcotic drugs and, in the prosecutors’ full wording:
unlawful production, possession, carrying and trade of weapons and explosive materials.
Guilt has not been established, and M. S. is presumed innocent. He has been ordered held for up to 48 hours, after which he will be brought before the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade along with a criminal complaint.
