Pirates seize U.S. freighter, hold captain for ransom

[Andres]

Now if I knew that if I was captured I'd be killed, I doubt I would ever attempt doing such a thing, no matter how poor I was. I would be trying to survive, not die. But that's just my opinion.

I've never been poor nor living in completely desperate circumstances, so I don't know what I would do

Also, are the guys in those small boats, waving guns and jumping on board of big ships the leaders, the big fishes?

If you kill them, wouldn't the real leaders just recruit other desperate guys to try again? Guys who probably don't even know they might get killed? Or maybe the pirate leaders could just put a gun against the heads of desperate people and tell them to either take their chances or die immediately?

Somalia is not exactly a country filled with hard working, middle class citizens and just a small minority of poor and desperate people.

Plenty of recruits and plenty of opportunities to force unwilling potential recruits for a smart, rich, ruthless and hardened criminal.

Anyway, that's how I would run my pirate business (if I would be evil). I wouldn't jump on those (guarded) ships myself, I'd force a few poor chaps to do it for me and let the ransom money be transferred to my bankaccounts. As a pirate leader, I would not care about the couple of hundreds poor guys that would get shot.

[Banquo's Ghost]

Anyway, that's how I would run my pirate business (if I would be evil). I wouldn't jump on those (guarded) ships myself, I'd force a few poor chaps to do it for me and let the ransom money be transferred to my bankaccounts. As a pirate leader, I would not care about the couple of hundreds poor guys that would get shot.

Otherwise known as being an Arab sheikh, bosom friend to Western arms dealers and politicians.

[Andres]

Otherwise known as being an Arab sheikh, bosom friend to Western arms dealers and politicians.

That's a likely possibility. I think it would be wrong to assume that you are dealing with a few random criminals, this is probably international organised crime at a high level and there's a lot of money involved.

After the money has been transferred to accounts at some probably dubious banks, the money laundry machine will make it almost impossible to trace.

Shooting a few desperate Somalians won't bring a solution to your problem.

Of course, something must be done against the guys waving guns and jumping on ships and protection should be offered to those merchant ships, but if you want to deal with this problem, you'll have to hunt down the leaders of the organisation, who are probably not only almost impossible to trace, but also rich, influential and with close ties to both corrupt African regimes and some western politicians.

But that won't stop others to try it again or to try something similar. A country with no strong government, unsafety, chaos, poverty and desperation is an ideal climate for anyone interested in starting a career in organised crime: plenty of cheap employees willing to do (voluntarily or forced) what you want them to do.

If you have the guts, have some money to "invest", know some people, are a bit handy and have some knowledge of corporate, tax and financial law, then you can have a bright future in Somalia or any other desperately poor and unstable country, without much risk of getting caught.

Welcome to the world of organised international crime