Abdi Sheik News

Somali police and international navies were preparing on Monday to attack a commercial ship that was hijacked by pirates last week, the Puntland region's police force said, two days after Indian commandos rescued another cargo vessel held by pirates.The MV Abdullah was hijacked off the coast of Somalia last week, the latest of more than 20 attacks since November by Somali pirates who had laid dormant for nearly a decade.On Saturday, the Indian navy rescued another cargo vessel, the Maltese-flagged MV Ruen, which had been seized in December, freeing its 17 crew members and arresting 35 pirates.

According to a May 13 report from the Associated Press, a Somali “pirate middle-man” said he's made hundreds of thousands of dollars brokering deals to free ships and their cargos after pirates attack. The 32-year-old Somali, who would be identified only by his alias, Abdi Sheik, said he helped gain the release earlier this year of a supertanker carrying an estimated $150m of crude oil. He claims to have successfully negotiated the release of an arms-laden Ukrainian ship and the 20 sailors onboard. Details of his accounts of being a middle-man could not be entirely verified, but Sheik had previously provided AP with reliable inside information about hijacked ships and a business associate confirmed his involvement in ransom negotiations.