Economic hardship of global proportions has struck again, and criminals have become more brazen. This target is again oil and other commodities in transport. The technology used by the modern Pirates enables them to out maneuver law enforcement. Consider the Somali Pirates caper in progress. Pirates operating off the coast of Somalia seized a large oil tanker, approximately three times the size of a US Aircraft Carrier. The Oil tanker was seized approximately 450 miles off shore and was carrying 3 million barrels of oil.
Somali pirates also hijacked a 26,000-ton Iranian cargo carrier on Tuesday. A US Navy officer operating in the theatre of the piracy has commented, "It is suspected that these Pirate gangs have become more sophisticated, operating large "mother ships," often former Russian trawlers, which follow their targeted ship with GPS devices. When they are close enough, they offload smaller dinghies or speedboats that move in for the capture. "
"They just come up to the stern, throw up their hook and ladder, and once you are on board, the ship is yours, because no one is going to mess with a man with an RPG [rocket propelled grenade launcher]," says Richard Cornwell, a senior researcher at the Institute for Strategic Studies in Tshwane, as Pretoria is now called. "Once [they're on board], it's over in 10 to 15 minutes. Unless you have a warship in the immediate area, and crucially, with a helicopter, you've got no chance of stopping them."The great take away is that criminals are becoming more brazen, they are using technology to their great advantage. And through overwhelming incidents perpetrated by many, they operate with impunity.
Whether off shore on within our borders, brazen crime is on the rise.
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Read two articles on this incident for greater detail.
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/11/17/kenya.tanker.pirates/?imw=Y&iref=mpstoryemail
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1119/p01s03-woaf.html
