Somalia seizes planes carrying pirate ransoms

BY John Oyuke

Somali authorities seized two aircraft carrying $3.6 million in ransom payments for pirates and detained six foreigners, government officials said.

Somali pirate gangs are reaping tens of millions of dollars in ransoms by seizing ships and holding their cargos and crew hostage.

International navies have managed to quell attacks in the busy Gulf of Aden shipping lane, but have struggled to contain the pirates in the vast expanses of the Indian Ocean.

Cash ransoms are usually dropped onto captured vessels from light aircraft.

"This morning, two unmarked planes landed and exchanged cargo. After investigation, $3.6 million were found," Abdi Sheikhur Sheikh Hassan, Somalia’s interior and security minister said in a statement.

An official at Mogadishu airport said one of the planes had flown in from the Kenyan capital Nairobi, while they were yet to determine the origin of the second.

"We seized the two planes and their pilots plus the ransom for the pirates," airport deputy security chief Burhan Mohamed told Reuters.

"We have taken the men and their cash to the jail. One plane was from Nairobi and it wanted to give the money to the pirates using another plane that landed soon after," he said.

It was not immediately clear which hijacked vessel was involved in the ransom payment.

Meanwhile, two more Somali men pleaded guilty to piracy charges in the February attack on an American yacht that left four hostages dead.

Said Abdi Fooley, 22, and Abdi Jama Aqid, believed to be in his mid-20s, each pleaded guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court to acts of piracy against the sailing yacht Quest.

Seven of 14 men captured in the Quest hijacking have now pleaded guilty and have agreed to testify against the others. Although each faces a mandatory life prison sentence, the agreements call for possible sentence reductions in the future.

Fooley and Aqid, like the others, admitted taking part in the pirate attack but denied being the ones who pulled the trigger, killing the boat’s owners, Scott and Jean Adam of Los Angeles, and their friends Phyllis Patricia Macay and Robert Campbell Riggle of Seattle.

"The two defendants warranted in their plea agreements that they did not personally shoot any of the four Americans, nor did they instruct any other person to shoot the hostages," the US Attorney’s Office said.