Straight to Syria
Straight to Syria
EXCESSIVE?
“35 assault rifles and nearly 5,700 rounds of ammunition “
that’s a decent stock of an average prepper....
Eric?
35 rifles and 5700 rounds of ammunition is hardly a huge cache.
"Huge cache".
Snort.
Not much ammo to start anything, but it’d be OK for fam fire, I guess.
Were two of their names Carnahan and Dravot?
I’d say the owners are taking precautions against Somali pirates. Ex-SAS, 35 rifles and 5,700 rounds doesn’t sound like smuggling.
Are the Indians freaking serious? I bet it took them all of 2 minutes to collect all this 'contraband' and haul if off the ship.
Sounds like they may have just been concerned about protecting sea traffic from Somali pirates.
India is big on disarmament. Those Muslim attacks on hotels in India were so successful because most Indian police are not armed.
Sounds like a rather paltry effort at self defense against piracy.
Prudent anti-piracy precautions?
Many countries do not allow weapons aboard commercial vessels entering port. If the Master were to fail to declare any on board weapons to the Harbor Master, the vessel and cargo could be seized. Security companies providing on board anti piracy protection for these commercial vessels must have a support ship that keeps the weapons and other keep equipment in International Waters, beyond the reach of authorities. They must make port only at countries that will permit it, or with the right bribe, look the other way.
It sounds like this was a vessel in distress due to storms and needed a safe haven. The Indian authorities knew that weapons were on board and probably granted them permission to enter Indian waters for the purposes of arresting them and their vessel.
One hopes that unarmed and unprotected Indian merchantmen are paying the proper surcharge to their maritime insurance premium, they are probably prime targets for pirates.
This article explains what is going on. This is a security protection mother ship. India has their nose out of joint over some Italian Marines who shot a couple of Indian fishermen, mistaking them for pirates
AdvanFort is a U.S. company. Their website explains who they are and what they do. No secrets here, just protecting commercial shipping from piracy, something that most navies of the world are refusing to do.
I gotta check my gun safe, see if anything is missing...
Indian officials branded a ‘floating armoury’.
Leave it to the Indians to not call an armory an arsenal...
33 crew members and 35 rifles. One for each man and two spares. That seems about right.
5700 rounds of ammo is not much given the number of rifles. Since they were at sea they should have at least one case of 1000 rounds for each rifle.
Seaman Guard?