Serbian-made firearms that once belonged to civilians and were later surrendered to or seized by police are being sold on the US market and promoted on YouTube, despite the lack of clear legal rules in Serbia governing the disposal and sale of such weapons.
Videos posted in 2024 and 2025 show popular US firearms channels unboxing crates of Zastava M83 revolvers in American warehouses. One such video, published by Classic Firearms and watched by more than a million subscribers, presents the guns as “surplus revolvers” while displaying original wooden crates marked with Cyrillic writing.
Several of the revolvers still carry paper tags traditionally used by Serbian police, including labels marked “MUP”, the acronym of the interior ministry. Other tags list the names of previous civilian owners and registration case numbers. Some grips feature Serbian symbols, such as the Red Star Belgrade football club crest or the Serbian double-headed eagle. Former and current Serbian police officers say such markings would not be permitted on official police-issue weapons, suggesting the guns originated from civilian stockpiles later collected by police.
Serbian law allows weapons that become state property to be destroyed, used by state bodies or “appropriated”, but it does not define how such weapons may be sold or transferred. There are no publicly available bylaws or police guidelines regulating the auction or export of seized or surrendered firearms. Former officers say the issue is handled through internal directives, allowing sales to licensed dealers after a certain period.
Official Serbian export data shows that only one Zastava M83 revolver was formally exported to the United States in recent years. This contrasts sharply with dozens of online videos advertising hundreds of similar revolvers for sale at prices ranging from $250 to $750, raising questions about how and from where the weapons entered the US market.