Pirates: Cooperating with brokers?
Wednesday, 09.Feb.2011, 22:10 (GMT+2)
International middlemen were involved in Somali pirates’ hijacking of the Korean freighter Samho Jewelry last month, investigators here have concluded. A spokesman for the Coast Guard said,
International middlemen were involved in Somali pirates’ hijacking of the Korean freighter Samho Jewelry last month, investigators here have concluded. A spokesman for the Coast Guard said,“We’ve discovered that the pirates worked with the help of brokers of various nationalities.”
“After questioning the pirates who were brought to Korea, we found out that they left Somalia and traveled some 2,000 km to reach the area where they hijacked the Samho Jewelry. They had sailed in a 40-50 ton mother ship on which they carried small boats from a country near Somalia.”
The process was aided by various channels including a broker who provided the route of the freighter, the investigators said.
Kim Du-chan, the boatswain of the Samho Jewelry, said “two or three” of the 13 Somali pirates who hijacked the freighter had also been involved in hijacking another Korean ship, the oil tanker Samho Dream. Their leader frequently exchanged information with brokers via satellite phone.
According to the crew, the pirates were heavily armed with AK-47 rifles, a rocket launcher and a machine gun. Based on their testimony, investigators believed that the pirates do lively business with arms dealers.
The investigation team plans to announce the outcome of a nine-day investigation in a press briefing Monday afternoon. The five pirates and investigation records will be handed over to prosecutors on Tuesday morning.
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