US sanctions pro-Russian head of Serbia's state security agency

Serbian Defence Minister Aleksandar Vulin attends the annual Moscow Conference on International Security (MCIS) in Moscow, Russia April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File Photo

BELGRADE (Reuters) - The United States on Tuesday sanctioned Aleksandar Vulin, a pro-Russian head of the Serbian Security and Information Agency (BIA), accusing him of using his position to help Moscow with "malign" activities, and with having links to an arms dealer and a drug trafficking ring.

As a result, the U.S. Treasury Department said all Vulin's property and interests in property in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons must be blocked and reported to Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).