2008-12-12 06:53:27 - With a world wide information gathering network in place the Somali pirates are almost unstoppable.

It has been recently been revealed that Somali Pirates own and operate a world-wide information gathering network. In particular the pirates search for illegal cargo, such as the 33 tanks being carried onboard the MV Faina, hijacked a couple of months ago.

"With 200,000 expat Somalians living in Canada alone, the huge Somali world-wide dispersion has jumped on the piracy piracy business, just as they would any other large business enterprise. You simply buy shares as in any syndicate,' says, a Somalia expert at Purdue University in Indiana, Michael Weinstein. 'You get a cut of the ransom when you buy in.'

Eyl, has become the new world piracy capital, though it is little more than a run down, outback, fishing

village in Somali, where scores of hijacked ships are docked. It receives only a small percent of the ransom millions being paid by shipping companies.

"We have translators and agents who act as our negotiators,' Suleyman, one of the pirates said, 'In many places in the world.' Agent who fronting as money changers and a percentage of the ransom dollars. Many are Somali expatriates.

Naples, Piraeus, Mombasa, and Rotterdam are all home to such agencies. Working in shipping and marine insurance firms in East African, the Gulf and European ports, there are many who eagerly spy for the pirates. Information is gathered from wherever merchant vessels dock, which are headed for the Gulf of Aden, the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. The pirates are kept well informed of the number of security guards and weapons that are onboard a particular vessel, as well as the cargo.

Pirate leaders, who are are easily recognizable, use their proxies to negotiate the ransom and terms for releasing hijacked vessels, rather than exposing themselves and their location. These front men also purchase the latest in navigation equipment, communications gear, speed boats, GPS, food, fuel, or any other supplies the pirate community requires.

Somalia is a country where the bank system has failed. Only cash and ‘hawala', an informal transfer network, is used. An operator in the ‘hawala' system accepts money at one end, then instructs a relative, friend, or another agent to hand the same amount to someone else. Thus a totally paperless system, based on trust and oral agreements, is created.

However, the pirates are more and more opting for cash settlements, strongly warning against anyone trying to fob off false money for the ransom. Earlier this year the pirates asked for money to be delivered to the Gulf. Strangely enough no one would volunteer to carry it.

'We do expect a favorable outcome,' said the leader of the group Mohamed Said, as the ultimatum for the ransom payment of $25 million for the MV Sirus Star, the Dubai owned oil tanker, hijacked on Nov 18th, is drawing to a close.
Dubai armed, private-security agencies believe this to be a once in a lifetime Blue Moon Opportunity to make a high score.

They offer their highly paid services to vulnerable shipping passing through the Gulf. However in a recent brazen attack on a Liberia-flagged oil and chemical tanker, three men jumped overboard and were hauled out of the water by a German helicopter. They were former British soldiers and had been providing security for the MV Buscagalia.