The pirates mingle in with other small commercial boats. You don’t know they are pirates until they are closing in on their target. Usually within a few hundred meters. Once they are boarded you have the same situation as surrounding a bank being robbed. You could just sink the cargo and the crew, but that wouldn’t make much sense.
If I were in charge (i say that often), i would insert spec ops teams on honey pot (decoy) ships. All you have to do is wait for them to board and waste a few hundred of these sandsuckers. The message will be much more effective than anything we could do with littoral forces.
It’s a great idea...until some state gets interested in where their state-sponsored terrorists/pirates are disappearing. Then the black bag is found in your red hands and you don’t have legitamacy protecting you.
Live captures have the same problem. When you want to bring them to justice, there will be opposition coming from the same neighbors that have encouraged young men to become pirates/terrorists.
It would take a very rich and bold enterprise to patrol these waters and send the pirates to the bottom while giving the “one finger victory salute” to those who cry, “Shame on you for killing those blood thirsty murderers!”
Sen. John McCain would do it if he were president.