Posted on 05/03/2016 11:41:01 AM PDT by StCloudMoose
Pirate gangs in West Africa are switching to kidnapping sailors and demanding ransom rather than stealing oil cargoes as low oil prices have made crude harder to sell and less profitable, shipping officials said on Tuesday. Attacks in the Gulf of Guinea - a significant source of oil, cocoa and metals for world markets - have become less frequent partly due to improved patrolling but also to lower oil prices, according to an annual report from the U.S. foundation Oceans Beyond Piracy (OBP), which is backed by the shipping industry. "They have had to move towards a faster model and that faster model is kidnappings," OBP's Matthew Walje said, noting that ransom payouts were as high as $400,000 in one incident. "It only takes a few hours as opposed to several days to conduct the crime itself," he told Reuters at the report's launch in London. "Fuel prices have fallen, which cuts into their bottom line." OBP said violence had also risen, including mock executions, and last year 23 people were killed by pirates there. "A lot of people are dying from piracy - nowhere near that number died in the last few years in the Western Indian Ocean (due to Somali piracy)," Giles Noakes, of leading ship industry body BIMCO, told the briefing.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
If planets had an anus, Africa would be ours.
Cruise ships better be on high alert.
Gotta handle pirates just like the 1800’s. Open fire, scuttle them, and send them all to Davy Jone’s locker.
let’s try that again - Davy Jones’ locker.
My thinking as to the solution is actually a quote from HRC. “It takes a village”. Meaning, the response.
Have we no Q-ships?
N it takes a CiC with the political courage to end this nonsense using the power of the Navy. This is what we built all those Littoral Combat ships for. Their perfect mission. All we need is a President with the verve to use them.
A couple of missions with a ship that has a crew of Marines instead of employees on board should curb that behavior.
remember when the hollywood liberals made that movie and gave their leading star an award. he gave all of his money to Islam and fell of earth
that reminds me, I wish Obama would go on a Cruise
careful if the Liberals get wind of your comment, they will come running
Is it still illegal to carry weapons aboard an international freighter?
Really, really stupid.
I hope that actor made enough money to buy his own creamed corn.
Super stupid. SSS = shoot, sweep and sea burial.
Some shipping companies are carrying armed guards while in pirate waters.
Then you have a country like India that imprisons those guards. Bunch of em sitting in a rotten Indian jail with long sentences on trumped up charges.
Yes it is. If you get caught with anything more than a handful of small arms on your ship by the Coasties or the Feds you are in so much trouble.
Word on the darknet is that shipping companies are getting distinctly nervous because they can’t defend themselves, the US is increasingly useless, and there’s no nation even close to replacing us on providing high-seas security.
Supposedly a handful of individual captains that sail in high-risk areas are starting to keep a well-hidden stash of RPGs for use by trusted crewmembers because you don’t need a direct hit unlike a gun (and sniping on the high seas is insanely hard) and they can outright sink pirate launches leaving no evidence. Captain puts out a radio call, everyone who isn’t trusted goes below or otherwise somewhere they won’t see something they shouldn’t and it’s point, blam, thank you ma’am with no survivors.
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