Inside Belgrade’s five-star Metropol Palace Hotel at centre of dramatic coke arrests

Belgrade’s five-star Metropol Palace Hotel opulent rooms have been hosted some of the world’s biggest stars but was this week it was centre stage in the dramatic arrest of three Australians, including prominent businessman Rohan Arnold (pictured), over an alleged $500 million international cocaine smuggling syndicate.

ITS opulent rooms have been home to some of the world’s biggest stars but Belgrade’s five-star Metropol Palace Hotel was this week centre stage to the dramatic arrest of three Australians over an alleged international cocaine smuggling syndicate.

The height of European decadence, the luxury hotel takes pride of place in the Serbian capital where it’s revered as a cultural monument.

Stars of stage and screen such as Elizabeth Taylor, Sophia Loren, Jack Nicholson, Kirk Douglas, Robert De Niro, jazz great Louis Armstrong and astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin have all enjoyed its renowned hospitality.

Three Australians were arrested in dramatic scenes at a hotel in Belgrade. Picture: Serbian Interior Ministry

Armed police stormed the hotel. Picture: Serbian Interior Ministry

Rohan Arnold on board the GYR Wot Eva Yacht during the Sydney to Hobart.

But the scenes played out in its magnificent lobby this week, when heavily armed police arrested prominent businessman Rohan Arnold and two other Aussies, shocked the hotel’s well-heeled clientele.

Dramatic video of the arrests showed Serbian police sprinting into the lobby of the plush hotel and ordering the three Australians and one Lebanese onto the floor at gunpoint. A bag filled with foreign currency­ banknotes is shown in the video, with local police saying the arrests were made during a “money handover”.

Five-star luxury ... The Metropol Palace Hotel in Belgrade. Armed police stormed the lobby, entering through the front of the hotel from the right hand side of the driveway

Opulence... Lobby of the Metropol Palace where arrests took place.

A bag full of currency was shown in the video. Picture: Serbian Interior Ministry

The area where the men were sitting when armed police stormed the lobby.

Police unzip bag loaded with cash. Picture: Serbian Interior Ministry

Australian steel importer and construction magnate Arnold, 43, Tristan Waters, 34, and David Campbell­, 49 are now languishing in a Serbian jail over alleged links to the second­largest cocaine seizure in Australian history.

No charges have been laid against the trio.

Arnold is being referred to as the “king of steel” in the Serbian press because of his 20-plus years experience in manufacturing steel and importing­ it from China.

Australia Federal Police allege­ 2576 blocks of cocaine weighing 1.28 tonnes were seized from inside a container of pre-fabricated steel as it arrived­ in Sydney in April 2017. They believe the drugs were sent from their source country via China.

It was the nation’s second-largest seizure of cocaine — 1.4 tonnes was stopped at the border in February 2017 — and was tested at 78 per cent purity, putting its value at up to $500 million.

On Wednesday, AFP officers­ raided five properties in Canberra, Murrumbateman, Jeir and Goulburn.

Stayed at hotel... Elizabeth Taylor pictured in Belgrade. Picture: Stevan Kragujević

Jack Nicholson and Robert De Niro ...

... have enjoyed the comforts of Metropol.

Arnold, who lives with his family near the NSW-ACT border, is a director of South Eastern Livestock Exchange which owns two livestock sale yards, one in Yass and another in western Victoria.

“We were surprised, we’re still in shock,” fellow SELX director­ Brendan Abbey said.

“I spoke to him on Sunday, he was here in Australia. He said he was going overseas for a week and would be back next week for the opening here on Sunday. I just presumed he was going to China because he has interests in steel factories there. We can’t fathom (the arrest).”

It is understood Arnold would travel to China about once every month to six weeks, purportedly to deal with his steel business.

Waters was formerly a co-director of CREI Camperdown with eastern suburbs developer Daniel Hausman, who last year was charged with extortion in an unrelated case — an infamous alleged fraud syndicate involving the son of former Australian Taxation Office deputy commissioner Michael Cranston.

Serbian police take one of the men into custody. Picture: Serbian Interior Ministry

Canberra expat Waters ­reportedly lived in Dubai ­before his arrest in Europe.

Campbell was reportedly a local of Murrambateman.

A Lebanese citizen reportedly named Diab Geagea, 41, was also arrested.

The AFP said its investigation is still ongoing and it has not ruled out arrests in Australia but Serbian police have immediate control over the three men, whose legal teams were desperately trying to arrange­ access yesterday.

“We’re in the process of organising­ access to see him in Serbia,” Arnold’s lawyer Ben Aulich reportedly said. “If everything is co-ordinated smoothly and he is not facing charges in Serbia, then we ­expect him back in the country within four to six weeks.”

The nine-month investigation codenamed Operation Amorgos, which also included New Zealand Police, followed a string of major cocaine seizures­ as cartels desperately attempt to meet the booming Australia market.