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No one was sure what had happened to the ship, when the 97 metre Arctic Sea went missing off the coast of Sweden, until it was discovered off the coast of Algeria, several weeks later. Numerous countries reported seeing the fleeing ship as it sailed south from the English Channel.
Anatoly Serdyulov, Defence Minister, said “Citizens of Estonia, Latvia and Russia - were arrested without a shot being fired”. The eight hijackers are now being detained in the high security Russian prison of Lefotrovo.
“The men had acted as an organized group with criminal intent to hijack the Arctic Sea and its cargo,” Vladimir Markin, spokesman for the Russian Prosecutor General's Investigative Committee said.
The hijackers face charges of kidnapping and piracy. Pretending they had engine problems, they masqueraded as police officers, before boarding and hijacking the vessel in open seas. The pirates wore garments with ‘police’ written on them, black masks and carried special arms.
The ship was allegedly transporting timber, but there is some confusion as to the true nature of the cargo. There is speculation that it was carrying arms, or nuclear material to the Middle East. It is alleged that Russian mafia smugglers were involved.
Several of the 15 crew members of the Russian owned Arctic Sea sustained injuries, though no specific details are yet available. They were isolated in separate cabins. The crews were questioned aboard an anti-submarine Russian warship, after the Russian Navy intercepted the ship, 300 miles off Cape Verde, three weeks after it had disappeared.
“It was not a question of search and rescue, but a political and police decision", said a Navy source, after the Portuguese Navy reported the true location of the Arctic Sea.
This act of piracy is the first to be perpetrated in European waters in modern times. Investigators in Finland reported that the ship’s owners had received a ransom note asking for $1.5 million, but, no-one can say whether it was for real, or merely an attempt by opportunists to grab some money.
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