Pirates Getting Help From Overseas

This isn't much of a surprise really. The pirates and the shipping industry have been in close contact through intermediaries for years in order to secure ransoms and negotiate deals to release ships and crews in Somalia and elsewhere around the world.

Therefore, it's not much of a reach to learn that there are unscrupulous people who are tipping off the pirates as to the whereabouts of lucrative targets ripe for being attacked by the pirates.

It says that pirate groups have "well-placed informers" in London who are in regular contact with control centres in Somalia where decisions on which vessels to attack are made. These London-based "consultants" help the pirates select targets, providing information on the ships' cargoes and courses.

In at least one case the pirates have remained in contact with their London informants from the hijacked ship, according to one targeted shipping company.

The pirates' information network extends to Yemen, Dubai and the Suez canal.

The intelligence report is understood to have been issued to European navies.

"The information that merchant ships sailing through the area volunteer to various international organisations is ending up in the pirates' hands," Cadena SER reported the report as saying.

This enables the more organised pirate groups to study their targets in advance, even spending several days training teams for specific hijacks. Senior pirates then join the vessel once it has been sailed close to Somalia.