MV Arctic Sea: Pirates Arrested

If this report holds up a lot of people will be proven wrong (including me) about the adventures of MV Arctic Sea - but the Russian Navy has announced the arrest of eight pirates allegedly involved in the hijacking of the ship. As reported by the Telegraph: Russian navy arrests eight "pirates" who seized the cargo ship Arctic Sea:

Eight 'pirates' of Russian, Latvian and Estonian nationality have been arrested for the hijacking of the cargo ship Arctic Sea in Swedish waters.

Following the arrests, which took place on board the ship, Anatoly Serdyukov, the Russian defence minister, has given more details of events surrounding the mystery vessel and its diversion to west Africa by the hijackers.

"These people, after claiming that their boat was not working, boarded the Arctic Sea and using the threat of arms, demanded that the crew follow all of their orders without condition," he said.

"Then the Arctic Sea moved on to an African route indicated by the aggressors to after turning off navigation equipment."

"Eight people - not members of the crew - have been detained," he said.

The suspects, who boarded the ship in Swedish waters, include four Estonian citizens, two Latvians and two Russian nationals.
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European and Russian maritime experts had speculated that that the ship's hijacking was not connected with an official manifest of timber and could be linked to an illegal cargo, such as arms, drugs or even nuclear materials, carried without the knowledge of crew or the ship's owners.

Well, it is an explanation.

I doubt it will end the speculation, though.

Whether there be pirates or not, the MV Arctic Sea sailed into history and legend over the past couple of weeks.

Me? I'm looking for Occam's razor . . .

UPDATE: BBC report.