‘Mossad agent who died in Italy was on mission working against Iran’

The Mossad and Italian intelligence personnel on the boat that capsized this past week on Lake Maggiore in northern Italy were working together to prevent Tehran from obtaining advanced weapons, according to a Friday report by the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.

The operation was exposed when the boat sank, killing four people, including one retired Mossad agent, the report said. Two others who drowned worked for Italian intelligence. The fourth was the wife of the ship’s captain.

The collaboration of the two espionage organizations reportedly began following Italian media reports which claimed that Russian oligarchs were operating in the area and were taking part in transferring

Iranian-manufactured UAVs to Moscow.

On Sunday morning, 21 secret agents from Italian organizations and the Mossad disguised themselves as tourists and got on a boat in Slovenia, which took them to Isole dei Pescatori, the smallest of the Borromean islands in Lake Maggiore. The boat capsized apparently due to stormy weather.

The retired agent was buried in Ashkelon on Wednesday in a funeral attended by many Mossad employees who hid their faces behind surgical masks at the cemetery.

Although retired, he continued to serve in the organization’s reserves and arrived together with his colleagues in Italy as part of cooperative relations between the Israeli and Italian spy organizations, The New York Times reported, citing a former official.

Thirteen of the 21 agents on the boat were from the Mossad. The boat’s skipper, Carlo Carminati, was arrested, suspected of negligent homicide, as the vessel carried 23 passengers when it was only allowed to carry 15.