The 1,000-foot-long Saudi oil tanker Sirius Star has been released after a ransom was paid, two months after Somali pirates launched a shocking raid to capture the $150-million vessel and its $100-million cargo of crude oil. But in a bizarre twist, five of the newly wealthy hijackers drowned while celebrating their windfall.
To secure the ship's freedom, and that of her 25 crew, Vela International Marine, which operates two-dozen large oil tankers on behalf of the Saudi state oil company Aramco, apparently packed $3 million into a metal canister and air-dropped the canister from a low-flying plane, straight onto Sirius Star's deck. The U.S. Navy photographed the plane (pictured) and the 'chute.
Later, as the pirates were motoring back to shore in boats, "singing in colorful tone, and exchanging some ridiculous words," one boat capsized and five pirates -- who could not swim -- drowned. According to my friend Mohamed Omar Hussein, a reporter for Somali Weyn Radio in Mogadishu, other Somalis who were "great swimmers" dove to recover cash that the pirates had sealed in plastic bags. On shore, "pastoralists" collected money that washed up in the surf. Later the body of one drowned pirate was found on the beach with $153,000 on his person.
The capture of Sirius Star, off of southern Kenya, hundreds of miles from pirates' land bases, startled Pentagon officials, including Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Gary Roughead. "The pirating of the Saudi oil tanker Sirius Star shows how [piracy] may be
detrimental to prosperity, and given the cargo of that ship, potentially detrimental to the environment," Roughead said.
[PHOTO: Navy]
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