Romanian police say they have recovered high-performance bicycles that were stolen from Italy’s national cycling team.
The 22 bikes were worth an estimated €600,000, according to Romania’s anti-crime agency
Four people have been detained on suspicion of theft, the authority added on Friday.
Authorities say that the bicycles went missing from a hotel in Lille on Saturday. The velodrome riders had been staying in France during the UCI World Track Championships held in the nearby city of Roubaix.
The stolen high-performance Pinarello bikes are reported to be worth around €30,000 each. Some were painted gold in honor of recent Olympic victories, and some had titanium 3D-printed handlebars.
Romanian police said in a statement that they found the bikes during a drugs raid on Thursday in the east of the country.
Electrical goods and cannabis were also seized in the raids, which targeted 14 homes of a suspected criminal network.
Police told a news conference that the suspects were trying to sell the stolen bikes, adding that they were only asking for around €1,500 each.
Colonel Paolo Cestra from the Italian Embassy in Bucharest has thanked Romania and said that the retrieved bikes have a “high economic value, but more importantly, they have a sentimental value.”
