"We arrested them last week after receiving reports that a number of ships had been pirated in waters east of Aceh province," Aceh police chief Inspector General Iskandar Hasan said here on Monday.
From the suspected pirates who were all Acehnes the police confiscated an FN gun and its ammunition, two standard hand grenades and ship crew documents as evidence.
He said the police also suspected the mastermind of the piracy was a prisoner in the Tanjung Gusta State Penitentiary in Medan, North Sumatra.
"We are still investigating whether the mastermind of the piracy is in LP Tanjung Gusta in Medan. We are still developing all information we have ," he said.
He said the suspects had confessed that they had often conducted armed operations against ships passing through the Malacca Strait. They usually take the ship`s crew hostage and then ask for a ransom in exhange for their release," he said.
In the last incident, he said, the four held hostage six crew of a Singapore-flagged ship, the GM Galant.
The tugboat manned by six Indonesian nationals was carrying heavy-duty equipment from Singapore to Sabang, Aceh, when it was pirated in East Aceh last week.
"Negotiations were then held between the pirates and the ship owner. During the negotiations we (the police) then joined the negotiating team. Several days later a dialog was held so we were able to locate one of the pirates who was holding the ship`s crew hostage," he said.
The group was believed to have a big network based on the documents that the police had confiscated from them, he said.
"They have an organizational structure and their operation areas and distribution of ransoms reach Riau Islands," he said.
(T.A042/H-YH/HAJM/A014)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
