India arrests crew of civilian ship operated by antipiracy firm Advanfort

[CougarKing]

Reminds me of that former US NOAA survey vessel operated by the armed contractor formerly called Blackwater, mentioned in the Modern Piracy thread.

India police 'arrest crew of US ship over arms'
AFP
1 hour ago

New Delhi (AFP) - Indian police Friday arrested and questioned 33 people aboard a ship operated by a US anti-piracy firm for carrying guns and ammunition in Indian waters without proper permits, reports said.

India's coastguard stopped and detained the ship off the Indian coast on October 12 after discovering the cache of weapons and ammunition, before escorting it to the southern port of Tuticorin.

Police then launched an investigation into the 10 crew and 25 security guards of the Seaman Guard Ohio which is registered in Sierra Leone and belongs to the US-based maritime security firm AdvanFort.

The 35, who include British, Estonian, Ukrainian and Indian nationals, were detained on Friday over the stash of some 35 assault rifles and around 5,600 rounds of ammunition, according to the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency.

Thirty three of them were taken to a local police station for questioning, while two remained on board, PTI said, citing police sources.

The crew had not maintained a log of the arms and did not have the proper permits to carry them in Indian waters, according to NDTV, also using unnamed sources.

http://news.yahoo.com/india-police-arrest-crew-us-ship-over-arms-094349946.html

Video

http://news.yahoo.com/video/india-arrests-u-ship-crew-091727323.html

 

[Navy_Pete]

There is come additional info here on the bbc story; http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-24577190

I think this is partially a reaction to when the Italian marines killed a few indian fishermen a few years back; looks like the ship took shelter there when the cyclone passed through.

Interesting story though, I think this will get prevalent with the financial churn as countries don't necessarily have the resources to put big expensive warships on station forever to keep shipping routes safe.