It used to be the waters of the South China Sea and Malacca Straits between Malaysia and Indonesia. were the dangerous waters for shipping. This is now changing in the light of the ever increasing hijackings along the Kenyan Coast, in the Gulf of Aden.

These hijackings are nothing more than high-seas robbery with the terrorist intent of demanding millions of dollars in ransom money.

Photograph: Veronique de Viguerie/Getty Images

The pirate group, formed just three years ago is known as the Central Regional Coast Guard and is led by Abdul Hassan.  It has 350 men in its ranks and about 100 speedboats.  However, there is an increasing rise of the use of ‘mother-ships’, that release fast attack skiffs along with pirates brandishing automatic weapons and grenade launchers. This allows the pirates to move further and further off shore, attacking ships many miles out to sea.

The pirates must have thought they hit pay dirt when in September they captured a Ukrainian freighter, the MV Faina, which was carrying military hardware, including grenade launchers and 33 Soviet-made T72 tanks. When the Sirius Star, the largest crude oil tanker in the world, was hijacked in November 18th, it was the biggest such incident of terrorism in the history of the sea.

Somalia has been without a central government since 1991 and the country is overrun with feuding politicians with private militia. Many of the pirates have personal connections to the politicians’ militia.

The pirates are preying on the lucrative grounds of the Gulf where thousands of ships pass through each year. It is estimated that up to $30 million has already been paid out in ransoms in 2008 alone.

Should the pirates start to scuttle fully loaded oil tankers, because their demands are not met, this would cause an environmental disaster, adding to all the other shipping woes of the area.

Two UK frigates, managed to stop pirates attacking a Danish cargo ship. Russian, US and Danish ships patrol the area, yet still the piracy continues. At least three more ships were hijacked hard on the heels of the Sirius Star being taken.

More than 12 vessels are still in pirate hands with over 200 crew. Ships are boarded and the crew held hostage until such time as the ship owners pay up the ransom.

Pirates have been portrayed as romantic, swash buckling heroes in movies and books. Today we have a group of terrorists, acting as 21st century pirates, which plan to keep the world at ransom in a tiny section of the vast oceans of the world. The difference perhaps is the speed of transport and the power of their weapons, the value of the cargo and the amount of ransom they demand, that has dramatically changed the face of piracy.

It is a pity the pirates don’t look for real Blue Moon Opportunities. (opportunities to change lives for the of mankind). Surely they have enough profits from past highjackings to to something worthwhile now. The problem is that crime and the promise of easy profits becomes addictive.

To learn more about a genuine Blue Moon Opportunity, take a few minutes to visit Win A Resort.