A vacation on a Sicilian beach unexpectedly turned into a real treasure hunt: after a strange incident involving a yacht, bags stuffed with cash floated to the surface, and tourists rushed to scoop the money out of the water, reports infohub.kz.
Off the coast of the municipality of Santa Croce Camerina in Sicily, a yacht arriving from Malta stopped due to an engine failure. The coast guard towed the vessel to shore, but during the operation it turned out that there were two more men on board.
According to investigators, one of them threw a refrigerator into the sea, and soon two supermarket bags from Lidl, stuffed with bundles of euros, appeared in the water.
The money quickly washed ashore, where beachgoers began collecting it. However, coast guard and financial police soon arrived and seized almost all the found banknotes. In total, about 670,000 euros were recovered, equivalent to approximately 363.4 million tenge.
Investigators suspect three Maltese citizens aged 20 to 30. Two have already been arrested and charged with possession of allegedly stolen property, as well as fined for illegally bringing a large amount of cash into the country. The third man managed to escape and is now being sought by police.
In addition, an eight-year-old boy was on the yacht. He was placed in the care of social services, as according to law enforcement, the child is not a relative of the detained men. Police are now trying to locate his parents.
The origin of the 670,000 euros is still unknown. Among the main hypotheses under investigation: money linked to drug trafficking or an attempt to launder funds. The boat and the found cash have been confiscated, and the Italian prosecutor's office has launched an investigation.