Pirates receive $4 million to free Spanish trawler

MOGADISHU: Somali pirates claimed Tuesday they were paid $4 million to free a Spanish trawler even as another group of ransom-hunting sea bandits seized a chemical tanker with 28 North Korean crew. The gang holding the Spanish tuna fishing vessel, the Alakrana, said they were counting the money and the trawler and its 36 crew was free to leave after six weeks in captivity. 

“$4 million have been paid for the release of the Spanish ship and we’re in the process of immediately releasing it,” Said Abdulle, one of the pirates holding the Spanish trawler told AFP by phone. 

“Technically, the ship is free. We’re in the process of checking the money,” Abdulle said from Harardhere, a pirate lair in northern Somalia. 

He did not say who had paid the ransom or how it was handed over. 

When processing large ransom payments, the hijackers bring reinforcements, the leaders of the pirate groups and even money-counting machines. Sources in Harardhere said dozens of people were on board the Alakrana. 

There was no immediate confirmation from the owners or the Spanish government that the ship and its crew captured on October 2 were free. 

Dozens of pirates and Somali businessmen can buy “shares” in a hijacking and the number of middlemen involved in any ransom payment – as well as internecine feuds between pirates – can lead to last-minute hitches. 

The ransom payment appeared to mark a change of tactics from Madrid, which had looked poised to opt for a swap with two members of a pirate gang who were detained by Spanish Marines after they left the captured Alakrana shortly after the hijacking. 

The suspects, who were flown to Spain, were expected to be deported to Somalia after a swift trial, Spanish judicial sources said Monday. 

They were formally charged with 36 counts of illegal detention and theft with violence and use of weapons, and ordered to stand trial before the National Court. 

The pirates made no reference Tuesday to the fate of their comrades. 

“We are very happy with the deal. We had a meeting yesterday and it lasted all night. Everybody, even our forces on the ground, were convinced we should go through with it,” Mohammad Ali, another member of the pirate group, told AFP. 

The captain of the Alakrana, Ricardo Blach, told Spanish public radio RNE earlier Tuesday that the crew were “all in good health.” 

Among them are 16 Spaniards, eight Indonesians as well as others from Ghana, the Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Senegal and the Seychelles. 

News of the Alakrana’s imminent release came just after another group of pirates seized a chemical tanker in the south Somali Basin with 28 North Koreans aboard, the EU’s anti-piracy mission in the region said Tuesday. 

“On November 16 a Virgin Islands owned [operated from Singapore] Chemical Tanker named the MV Theresa VIII was hijacked … 180 nautical miles North West of the Seychelles,” the mission said. 

The EU force also said that pirates attacked a Ukrainian cargo ship on Monday but were repelled by a security outfit on board the vessel.

The MV Theresa VIII was attacked northwest of Aldabra, one of the world’s largest atolls which forms part of the Seychelles archipelago but lies some 1,100 kilometers from the main island of Mahe and is closer to Tanzania or Madagascar. 

The world’s naval powers last year started deploying warships in the Gulf of Aden in an attempt to curb attacks by ransom-hunting pirates that were seen as a threat to one of the globe’s most crucial maritime trade routes. 

Pirates have since shifted their focus to the wider Indian Ocean, a huge area more difficult to patrol, and maritime experts have warned that pirates could soon be hunting their prey as far out as the Maldives and Madagascar. 

In the course of the past few days Spanish private security guards have been boarding the 13 Spanish-flagged tuna boats that operate in the Indian Ocean from the Seychelles capital Victoria. 

The guards are all armed with machine guns and long-range rifles.