Tourist fined $1,200 for taking white sand from Italian beach

Sept. 8 (UPI) -- Authorities in Italy said a French tourist was fined $1,200 for attempting to smuggle more than 4 pounds of Sardinia's famous white sand out of the country.

Sardinia's Forest Rangers said the tourist was stopped at Cagliari Elmas Airport and ordered to pay the fine after a bottle containing 4.4 pounds of sand was found in his possession.

"The bottle was confiscated and is in now in our operating room where we hold these confiscated items. At the end of the year we usually have many bottles of sand accumulated," a spokesman for the Forest Rangers told CNN.

A regional law introduced in 2017 made it illegal to take sand from Sardinia's beaches, with fines ranging from $600 to $3,550 depending on the amount of sand taken and where it was taken from.

"Last year we found a website that was selling our sand as souvenirs. It's become a very known phenomenon here in Europe," the spokesman said.