Pirates paid $9m ransom


SOMALI pirates say they've received a record $US9 million ransom in a helicopter air drop for the release of a South Korean supertanker, Samho Dream, with 24 crew.

The Samho Dream ''was freed this morning after the payment of $9 million to my colleagues'', one of the pirates said at the weekend.

''The money was dropped by helicopter and they [the pirates] are in the process of sharing it,'' Abdi Yare said from the port of Hobyo.


Other sources in Hobyo, now the main lair of pirates preying on merchant ships in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, confirmed the sum, which equals or exceeds the largest ransoms paid previously.

The 300,000-tonne Samho Dream was seized in the Indian Ocean in April as it was heading from Iraq to the US state of Louisiana with a crew of 19 Filipinos and five South Koreans.

Meanwhile, the Chinese Transport Ministry said yesterday that the MV Golden Blessing, a petroleum and chemical tanker, and its crew ''were rescued safely'' from pirates on Saturday. The vessel had been travelling to India from Saudi Arabia when it was hijacked in late June, and had been held at Qandala in northern Somalia's autonomous region of Puntland.

''The 19 Chinese crew are safe. At present, the Golden Blessing is heading to safe waters under Chinese naval escort,'' the ministry said. It did not say how the ship had been rescued.

The Ecoterra association, which specialises in cases of piracy, said a ransom had been paid. Another source put it at several million dollars.

Heavily armed pirates using speedboats operating from lawless Somalia have been attacking ships over a vast area for several years despite the presence of foreign naval forces.

They sometimes hold vessels for weeks before releasing them for large ransoms paid by governments or shipowners.

The biggest sums paid previously were also for the release of supertankers. Between $US3 million and $US8 million was paid to free the Sirius Star in January 2009, and between $US5.5 million and $US9 million for the Maran Centaurus a year later.

More than 130 suspected Somali pirates are being held in Kenyan prisons, and dozens have been sentenced to jail terms.

Good on 'em...they saw an opportunity, and they took it.

Have made some pretty good scores....supertankers, arms shipments etc....seems a pretty lucrative racket.

JC Denton wrote on Nov 8^th, 2010 at 3:25pm:


Untill he gets a bruise, or a scratch that is, then he`d want to call a pirate`s union meeting in the middle of the briney.

OIII, and don`t tug on the Crook`s buccanears during that rough man sex he loves!

Oiiiii arrrrrr, & not only me buccanears mahey!