![]() Given the number of vessels that traverse the region, the odds that these ships would all fall victim at random may seem remarkably low. In the past 12 months, the company has fallen victim to four separate pirate attacks: the first in August 2013, two more attacks within days of each other in October 2013, and the latest, against Orapin 4, in late May 2014. The Orapin 4 is one of 11 vessels registered to the Bangkok-based Thai International Tankers. “We believe that there is some insider information,” Teo told TIME, citing the circumstances surrounding these specific attacks. Of those 14 attacks, one specific company was targeted four times, a coincidence that experts suspect may be the result of a collusion between either the shipping company, or some members of the crew, and the alleged attackers. And yet, TIME’s investigation revealed evidence of this trend stretching back more than a year, with 14 oil-siphoning attacks since 2011. A former commander in the Republic of Singapore Navy, Teo is now deputy director of the Information Sharing Center (ISC) of the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery Against Ships in Asia (or, as it’s mercifully abbreviated, ReCAAP). “This trend only started in the last three months, and we expect there will be more,” Nicholas Teo told TIME in June. These require military coordination and meticulous planning. While the majority of attacks are opportunistic - 80% of total incidents worldwide occur against anchored ships, with thieves looting equipment, crew members’ belongings and any cash found aboard - the attacks this spring have featured large-scale, sophisticated strikes on vessels at sea. Here, the territory is vast, law enforcement’s resources are stretched, and the potential profits are immense. In recent months, well-armed and organized criminal groups have focused their efforts on the oil tankers that exit the narrow Malacca and Singapore straits and venture into the South China Sea. ![]() The Asian share of that represents buccaneering on a lavish scale, and it is becoming more ambitious. During those years, 136 seafarers were killed in Southeast Asian waters as a result of piracy - that’s twice the number in the Horn of Africa, where Somalia lies, and more than those deaths and the fatalities suffered in West Africa combined.Īccording to a 2010 study by the One Earth Future Foundation, piracy drains between $7 billion and $12 billion dollars from the international economy each year. The West Indian Ocean, which includes Somalia, accounted for just 28%, and the West African coast only 18%. Southeast Asia was the location of 41% of the world’s pirate attacks between 19. ![]() Heather Jones / TIME Source: ICC CCS ➞ Click to see fullsize image But this was the sixth such attack in three months. Under most conditions, the brazen attack on the Orapin 4 would have been notable. While the 14 members of the crew were safe, the pirates - and $1.9 million in stolen fuel - were long gone. Finally, four days after the attack, the Orapin 4 pulled into its home port of Sri Racha, Thailand - the town, as it happens, where the namesake hot sauce was first brewed. Over the next 10 hours, the attackers siphoned more than 3,700 metric tons of fuel into a second vessel. Radio alerts were sent out, asking other vessels to keep an eye out for the ship - but nobody had seen it. They then scrubbed the first and last letter from the boat’s stern, leaving a new identifier, Rapi, in its place.įailing to hail the crew that evening, the Thai shipping company that owns Orapin 4 reported it missing. Bursting onto the bridge, the attackers locked the ship’s crew below deck and disabled the communications system. The ship was carrying large quantities of fuel between Singapore and Pontianak, a port on the western coast of Indonesian Borneo. Two hours before sunset on May 28, 10 men, armed with guns and machetes, climbed from their speedboat onto the deck of a shipping tanker named Orapin 4. Pictured above: Vessels anchor off the east coast of Singapore on Aug. Asia’s seas offer rich pickings for marauding pirates who steal oil and supplies worth billions of dollars every year
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