Lake Maggiore, Northern Italy
Lake Maggiore, Northern ItalyISTOCK

In Italy, a memorial plaque was made public in memory of the two Italian intelligence agents who drowned to death along with Israeli Mossad agent Erez Shimoni in Lake Maggiore in May last year.

The inscription on the memorial plaque revealed that the Italian agents were on a secret mission. "The two lost their lives while on secret operational activity, with their colleagues from the security forces of a foreign country," the memorial plaque reads.

The Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported after the incident that ten Israelis who were on the boat that capsized in Lake Maggiore in northern Italy were returned to Israel on a military plane.

The disaster probably occurred as a result of overload on the boat and adverse weather conditions. According to Italian media, the boat could carry 15 people, and at the time of sinking there were 25 on board.

The boat owner's wife was also killed.

The Corriere della Sera news website in Italy speculated after the disaster that Israeli and Italian intelligence agents had met to monitor the transfer of Russian funds to Iran. According to the report, the agents tried to track the flow of money from a certain capitalist.

The Italian news website noted that businessmen – "Russian people" – transferred their investments from Lake Como to luxury hotels in the Lake Maggiore area – where intelligence agents were staying on the boat.