€750,000 Sicily mystery deepens as man who abandoned son on speedboat is arrested in Malta

A Maltese man at the centre of the mysterious €750,000 cash seizure off the Sicilian coast has been arrested by the Maltese police after returning from Italy, with investigators in both countries intensifying efforts to uncover the origin of the money and whether it was linked to drug trafficking.

The Shift has learned that Jeffrey Cassar, one of the three Maltese men aboard the speedboat intercepted off Ragusa last week, was arrested shortly after arriving back in Malta for allegedly breaching the conditions of bail imposed on him in separate criminal proceedings related to drugs.

Sources familiar with the investigation said Cassar was on bail when he travelled to Sicily.

According to information obtained by The Shift, Cassar disappeared shortly after the Maltese-registered speedboat became stranded off the Sicilian coast, abandoning his 13-year-old son on board as Italian authorities moved in to assist the vessel.

He remained unaccounted for for several hours before eventually returning to be questioned by the Sicilian police together with the two other Maltese men who had been on the boat.

Following his return to Malta, Cassar was arrested by the police and is expected to be arraigned in court over the alleged breach of his bail conditions.

His arrest is unrelated to the ongoing Italian investigation into the discovery of the cash.

The speedboat, owned by Maltese national Owen Jones, remains under seizure by the Sicilian authorities as investigators continue examining its movements and forensic evidence recovered from the vessel.

Jones and another Maltese national, Sage Gauci, were questioned by the Sicilian police before being allowed to return to Malta. Both remain under investigation in Italy, although no charges have yet been filed against any of the three Maltese citizens.

Jones has publicly denied any connection to the money, while Gauci has also denied wrongdoing.

The investigation began after the speedboat ran out of fuel and drifted towards the coast near Casuzze, in the province of Ragusa. Italian Coast Guard officers responding to the disabled vessel allegedly witnessed waterproof bags containing around €750,000 in cash being thrown into the sea.

The money was subsequently recovered by the authorities with the assistance of people at the beach, while the vessel was impounded.

More than a week after the incident, investigators have still not established who owned the cash, where it originated or who was due to receive it.

However, sources close to the investigation told The Shift that cooperation between the Sicilian authorities and the Maltese police has intensified in recent days as officers attempt to reconstruct the failed crossing and identify those behind the operation.

Although prosecutors have not publicly identified the offences under investigation, one of the principal lines of inquiry is whether the cash formed part of a cross border drug trafficking operation between Malta and Sicily.

For now, the €750,000 remains unclaimed, the boat remains seized, and investigators on both sides of the Mediterranean are still trying to solve one of the most unusual cross border criminal investigations in recent years.