British police to hunt Seychelles pirates

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Britain is to create a new intelligence cell with the job of tracking the multi-million dollar money flows generated by pirate 'kingpins'.

Ministers plan to send officers from the Serious and Organised Crime Agency to staff a new Indian Ocean unit dedicated to hunting pirate financiers who provide start-up cash for gangs in return for the majority of the ransom proceeds.

A financier who offers $10,000 to equip a gang with skiffs, fuel and guns can expect a return of 10 or 20 times his initial investment after a successful hijacking takes place.

Although the profits are believed to run into tens of millions of dollars each year, not much is known about where the money ends up.

"Pirate financiers are the kingpins of piracy," says Henry Bellingham, Foreign Office minister for Africa, who will announce details of the new unit in a speech to the Chamber of Shipping in London on Wednesday. "Effectively targeting them will have a huge impact on the ability of pirates to terrorise the high seas."

The new unit will be based in the Seychelles Islands, nearly 1,000 miles east of Kenya.

Arrangements are now in place that will allow convicted pirates to be transferred back to prisons under construction in Puntland, the semi-independent region of northern Somalia from where much of the piracy is conducted.

However critics fear that the prospect of a share of multi-million ransoms means that even the risk of a long sentence in a Somali jail is unlikely to deter pirates. And, as the Puntland's justice system is open to bribery, many pirate financiers may be able to buy themselves out of jail.

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