ROME (Dispatches) -- A recently retired Mossad agent has died along with two Italian spies in a mysterious incident on Lake Maggiore in which a boat carrying dozens of intelligence officers capsized.
A total of four people died after the tourist boat overturned and sank on Sunday evening on Italy’s Lake Maggiore.
Italian officials were quick to state that it was a weather-related accident, with no foul play suspected. They, however, cited also another factor: overcrowding as the vessel, named the Gooduria, was said to be carrying eight more people than its 15-person limit at the time of the incident.
Israeli media reports said that 18 of the 20 survivors were serving or former members of the intelligence services.
Some in the group of serving and former spies supposedly became friends after encountering each other in their line of work and had rented the boat to celebrate a birthday. The boat hire
allegedly took place at the tail end of an official visit to Italy by Israeli spies.
The occupying regime of Israel and Italy have been seeking to strengthen their ties on artificial intelligence and cyber-security, two areas which may have required input from intelligence services on both sides.
The drowned former Israeli agent, described by those who knew him as a “genius” in the intelligence field, had only recently retired according to the Israeli broadcaster Channel 12. He was named by local media reports as Shimoni Erez, though a statement by Israel’s foreign ministry identified him only as a retired member of the security services.
Italian security services said the other victims, 62-year-old Claudio Alonzi, and 53-year-old Tiziana Barnobi, were their intelligence agents. A fourth victim, 50-year-old Russian citizen Anna Bozhkova, is understood to be the partner of the tourist boat’s captain.
“The two employees, belonging to the intelligence department, were taking part in a convivial meeting organized to celebrate the birthday of one of the group,” said the Italian security services in a statement.
Officials in the Lombardy region claimed that a “whirlwind” made the 52-foot boat overturn and sink, while Italian investigators said a sudden change in weather appeared to be the cause of the accident.
The survivors either swam to shore or were rescued by other boats. Local reports said that ten serving Israeli agents were evacuated from hospitals and put on a military plane back to Tel Aviv. They reportedly left in such a hurry that a Ford rental car was left by the lakeside.
There were few details reported in the Israeli press about the Israeli victim, who was described as a Mossad agent by the news website Arutz Sheva.
“Every time we asked, he’d give you a wide smile and say nothing. The most discreet person I’ve known,” one unnamed friend of the agent told Ynet, one of Israel’s most widely read news websites.