Follow link to more pictures http://www.navsource.org/archives/15/150202.htm
Posted on 01/18/2010 2:22:53 AM PST by Cheap_Hessian
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali pirates freed a Greek-flagged tanker carrying 2 million barrels of oil on Monday, a day after the biggest ransom yet paid to them was dropped onto its deck, the pirates and a maritime official said.
The Maran Centaurus was seized on November 29 with 16 Filipinos, nine Greeks, two Ukrainians and a Romanian on board. An aircraft dropped a ransom believed to be between $5.5 million and $7 million onto the vessel on Sunday, officials said.
"We have agreed to solve our disagreements and release the ship. It is free and sailing away now," one of the pirates, Hassan, told Reuters by telephone. "The crew are all safe." Another pirate and a regional maritime official confirmed that the tanker, hijacked near the Seychelles archipelago in the Indian Ocean, was freed on Monday.
The ransom dwarfed sums paid previously for vessels held by Somali sea gangs. A dispute between two rival pirate groups over the spoils had delayed its release.
Ecoterra International, a Nairobi-based group that monitors shipping off Somalia, said two pirates had been killed in a gun battle with a rival gang as they returned to shore.
"The stash of the record-breaking ransom ... is reportedly now held in a heavily guarded house in Haradheere," it said, adding that the pirate-run port was now very tense because the sharing of the funds had not yet taken place.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
adding that the pirate-run port was now very tense because the sharing of the funds had not yet taken place.
This will no doubt occur right after “the airing of grievences”
Follow link to more pictures http://www.navsource.org/archives/15/150202.htm
I hope they tagged the stash with a radioisotope that can be spotted from the air. Send a Hellfire missile or something into that pirate house.
Then, the Greeks should carry guns during the times that they pass through the pirate waters.
grea, this means they pirate even more ships
Destroy the port.
It’s a den of thieves. Destroy it.
If you refuse to pay your taxes, the US government will come get you and hold you hostage until you pay up. Whats the difference?
(OK, they use M4's instead of AK47's)
The cure for piracy is to sink their ships , save one person to tell the tell and kill the rest.
Is there a dye pack in the money bag?
Hopefully the loot was sprayed with some highly infectious disease before it was delivered, or tagged with some sort of tracking device so the drones can home in...
I can dream, can’t I?
Why would anyone pay $7M ransom? Doesn’t Greece have a navy (maybe not, I think the Euro-socialists all rely on USA for protection) that can just shell the town where the boat is docked?
Why not just hire bounty hunters like we did 200 years ago? Seemed to solve the problem.
Amazing that 1.5M was wired into a bank account. Since when do pirates have bank accounts? Can’t the transaction be reversed?
Nb: Additional note, haven’t seen any US ships attacked recently - maybe just luck of the draw, or maybe not since we terminated the last crew.
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