A big bird in a small flock: Crime at Belgrade airport.

Belgrade’s Nikola Tesla airport is one of the busiest airports in South Eastern Europe.¹ It served 5.6 million passengers in 2022, 71% more than in 2021, albeit below a high watermark set in 2019, the last full year before the coronavirus pandemic.² Almost 30 airlines fly regular routes from Belgrade airport to over 90 destinations in 38 countries on four continents.

Belgrade’s location on key trafficking routes makes the airport vulnerable to smuggling of luxury goods, drugs, cigarettes, cash and people. A recent report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime’s (GI-TOC) South Eastern Europe Observatory sheds light on the extent and modalities of trafficking.³ Unlike smuggling through ports in South Eastern Europe that has led to major seizures of illicit commodities, authorities at airports in the region seize mostly small shipments.

Belgrade’s Nikola Tesla airport, March 2022.

Photo: Oliver Bunic/Bloomberg via Getty Images

As shown in Figure 1, between 2018 and 2022, Serbian police discovered more than 80 drug-related criminal offences at Belgrade airport.⁴ This included the discovery of more than 10 000 doses of psychoactive controlled drugs,⁵ such as diazepam, bromazepam, lorazepam, alprazolam and zolpidem.⁶ Furthermore, they seized more than 21 kilograms of cocaine,⁷ mostly coming from the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru. The police have also arrested drug mules – often women who are not carrying any luggage at the time of their arrest and cannot tell authorities where they will stay or spend the night.⁸

Figure 1 Drug-related criminal offences detected at Belgrade airport, 2018–2022.

Source: Serbian Ministry of Interior

In addition to cigars, there is also a brisk trade in small-time smuggling of tobacco products, usually between Belgrade and Luton airport in the UK. Individuals buy cigarettes at the airport in Belgrade, where a carton costs about €20, and sell them in the UK for approximately €90 – a net profit of around €500 per 10 cartons. The smuggling method is simple; cigarettes are carried in hand luggage or hidden in specially sewn apparel.⁹

Serbian customs regularly seize various types of flora and fauna from around the world, which authorities either store or destroy at warehouses just outside the airport.¹⁰ Plants that lack accompanying documentation arrive mainly from China for recipients who are usually located in Serbia. Animals mostly come from Africa, while corals arrive from South America and Asia. Ivory items, teeth and hunting trophies are at times found transiting Belgrade; in most cases, they are accompanied by forged documents.¹¹

Seizures at Belgrade airport often centre on small but valuable luxury goods. In February 2023, customs officers discovered in the luggage of a passenger from Switzerland undeclared branded watches, jewellery and accessories by Cartier, Rolex, Fred and Hermes worth €55 000.¹² In January 2023, customs found almost 2 000 high-quality cigars in the belongings of a Cuban traveller.¹³ Works of art have also been seized; for example, paintings of the famous Serbian artist Paja Jovanović were found in July 2021.¹⁴ Customs have also seized cash, mostly from passengers travelling to South America.¹⁵

Important gateway

Although Belgrade has been a hub for irregular migration since the migrant crisis peaked in 2015,¹⁶ the airport has not been significantly exposed to migratory pressures.¹⁷ However, since 2020 it has become a key transit point for people from Burundi, Cuba, India, Tunisia and Turkey who make use of Serbia’s friendly visa policies. They fly directly or via Istanbul to Belgrade and then travel from Serbia to the EU irregularly.¹⁸ The use of Belgrade airport as a gateway for onward migration was of sufficient concern to the EU that it pressured the Serbian government to change its visa policy.¹⁹ Nevertheless, the number of foreigners refused entry at Belgrade airport has recently increased, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2 Refused entries and exits for foreigners at Belgrade airport, 2018–2022.

Source: Serbian Ministry of Interior

Belgrade is one of the few airports in Europe that still operates direct flights to Russia. Most of this travel is legal, but it does add to the potential vulnerability of the airport as a hub for illicit activity, given various sanctions imposed on Russia in the wake of its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Illegal border crossings at Belgrade airport are often facilitated by forged travel documents. Forged passports from Croatia, Germany and Belgium are the most common documents detected by border police. Although introducing biometric documents has reduced the use of fake travel documents, border police stamps and immigration visas are still being falsified.²⁰ Indeed, between 2018 and 2022, police detected more than 1 000 people travelling on forged documents at Belgrade airport (see Figure 3).

Figure 3 Cases of forged documents at Belgrade airport, 2018–2022.

Source: Serbian Ministry of Interior

Unlike large transportation infrastructure such as ports, where law enforcement has often identified transnational organized crime,²¹ Belgrade airport is a relatively secure space. Although there is room for better detection of smuggling,²² in May 2022, the International Civil Aviation Organization determined that the aviation security system in Serbia complies with almost 95% of standards.²³ Overall, airport security has improved, especially since 2016, following the imposition of security requirements for direct flights from Serbia to the US.²⁴

Although the quantities of goods moving illicitly through Belgrade airport are small, the high number of individual cases indicate the need for a closer look. This is especially important since the quality of passenger and luggage controls declined when a private security company took over this task from the police and airport security service.²⁵

Belgrade airport is managed by a French company, VINCI Airports, which in March 2018 signed a 25-year concession contract for the airport with the Government of Serbia.²⁶ The contract was not made public and was granted at the suspiciously convenient price of one euro more than the next bidder, implying that information about the price was leaked.²⁷ In addition, investigative journalists discovered that a businessperson who had been prosecuted for organized cigarette smuggling in 2011 would earn at least €28 million from selling land for the airport’s expansion.²⁸

A key hub

Air Serbia is one of Europe’s fastest-growing airlines, meaning that Belgrade could become a key transport hub. This brings opportunities for trade and tourism, but also increased risks of illicit activity. Airport security is considered relatively good,²⁹ although vigilance is necessary to prevent smuggling by passengers and through cargo shipments, as well as corruption among airport staff. Given that passenger and baggage control at the airport is carried out by a private company, oversight measures should be in place to ensure that the company’s staff are appropriately trained, especially to prevent smuggling.³⁰ Insufficient training of staff and corruption by insiders has often proved to be the weakest link when it comes to airport security.³¹

This article draws on research from the GI-TOC report ‘Catch me if you can’, by Ruggero Scaturro, which provides an analytical overview of security at airports, factors of vulnerability in aviation transiting the Western Balkans, and how these vulnerabilities are exploited for criminal purposes.

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