Seven pirates arrested by Eunavfor Atalanta
(B2) It was yesterday (Wednesday) late morning. A Greek boat - the And the end - flying the Panamanian flag, was attacked by pirates in the Gulf of Aden (on a position: 1335 North and 04858 East). The merchant ship was able, by various avoidance maneuvers - change of direction, etc... - to escape the skiff which was pursuing them. In the manoeuvres, the skiff capsized. He was reportedly hit by the merchant ship.
The alert was given by radio. And, several warships (Spanish and South Korean) came to his aid. The Spanish supply ship of the EU Fleet Atalanta, the Marquis of the Ensenada (*), very close to there (15 nautical miles) thus dispatched his helicopter on the spot and approached very quickly. He was thus able to recover the 7 pirates, who had fallen into the trap, and detained them on board, announces the HQ of Atalanta.
NB: a Korean destroyer, the King Munmu, also responded to the distress call and sent his helicopter to the area.
In search of evidence
Taking into account unfortunate precedents - forcing the pirates to be released for lack of judicially acceptable evidence by the Kenyan authorities - the Spanish sailors took several pieces of evidence. Starting with the testimony of the captain. "After viewing photos of rescued people, the captain of the Nepheli recognizes the perpetrators of the attempted kidnapping from his boat"thus announces the Spanish Ministry of Defense. In addition to signing a statement that describes the attempted attacks by pirates and the way in which they managed to escape, the team of the visit of the Marquis of the Ensenada was able to note, on the boat, several bullet wounds in the windows and the superstructure, attesting to the reality of the attack. And in the boat belonging to the castaways, the Spaniards found, among other things, gasoline, a magnetic needle and a GPS...
Another successful attack
Moreover, this morning, at 9:00 a.m. local time, the pirates made a new conquest. a small Dutch freighter of 2500 tons was hijacked by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden (position: 1343 North 05035 East), with 8 crew members on board.
(*) The supply tanker Marquis of the Ensenada is commanded by Commander Carlos Alfonso Gomez Fernandez de Cordova and has a crew of 113 men. In addition to the missions of supplying EUNAVFOR Atalanta ships, it carries out patrol and surveillance missions. He thus has
ensured, at the end of April, the safe transport of the Italian cruise ship Melody - which had been attacked by the
hackers.
(NGV)
