SHOOT: Bizarre. The start of a new trend? Let's hope not.
Piracy has exploded off the coast of lawless Somalia — but could this be an almost unheard of case of sea banditry in European waters?
"If this is a criminal act, it appears to be following a new business model," Marine intelligence expert Graeme Gibbon-Brooks told Sky News on Wednesday.
The mystery began on July 24, when the 15 crew members of the Arctic Sea said they were tied up and beaten by a group of up to 10 men who boarded the ship off the Swedish island of Oland. The masked men identified themselves as police officers — but Swedish police said they hadn't been searching ships in that area.
"We were very puzzled when we first heard about this," Isaksson said then. "I have never heard of anything like this in Swedish waters."
"It's bizarre," he said. "There is no coastguard I know who can remember anything like this happening."
The cargo was shipped by Finnish wood supplier Rets Timber, and is worth 1.3 million euros ($1.84 million), the company said.
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