All language subtitles for Asias Underworld s01e04 Pirates.eng

Marauders of the high seas,
outlaws of the ocean.

For centuries, pirates have roamed
the seas of Southeast Asia,

attacking ships, taking hostages.

Even taking lives.

Today, high seas crime is on the rise.

Law enforcement agencies...

...are reporting dramatic increases
in pirate activity.

On average,

ships are being attacked
every two to three days.

Ruthless, professional,
and highly organized...

...pirates are back in business,

terrorizing the seas
of Southeast Asia once again.

At 2 in the morning,
on the 9th of March, 2011,

officers of the Malaysian Maritime
Enforcement Agency....

...pick up a ship's siren
during a routine patrol.

The signal has come
from the MT Front Queen,

a 300,000-ton tanker...

...anchored off the west coast
of peninsular Malaysia.

Minutes before police arrive,

seven pirates approach the boat
under cover darkness.

They quickly board the anchored ship...

...and take the 24-man crew hostage.

The pirates chase
several crew members with machetes.

One man escapes and manages
to sound the ship's horn,

alerting nearby law enforcement agents.

The pirates try to make a run for it,

but are caught
while trying to flee the scene.

Seven men are arrested for piracy,

and taken into custody.

It's rare that such a chance encounter
takes place at sea in Malaysia.

Officers are quick...

...to gather as much information
as they can from the event.

The incident on the 9th of March,

where we managed to apprehend
seven robbers on site,

it happened because we have already
conducted our operations.

So all seven were apprehended,

and we found several tools as well
as knives belonging to the robbers.

Upon investigation,

they are Indonesians
and they were from Batam.

It's the 11th incident
of piracy in Malaysia this year.

But Asia-wide,

a total of 164 incidents
of high seas crime...

...were reported in 2010.

Up 60 percent from the previous year.

Lately the cases have been increasing.

One of the reasons there have been
quite a number of ships, you know,

anchored off the waters.

Vessels of all sizes
pass through the Malacca Strait,

carrying goods from one end
of the world to the other.

The region is said to handle
60,000 vessels per year,

carrying 40 percent of global trade,

including 75 percent
of the world's petroleum.

The Strait is a chokepoint for shipping,

where half of the world's fleet
is directed into a narrow pass...

...making them easy targets
for pirates.

You'll find that these ships,

they are are vulnerable
to robbery attacks.

And the robbers
also will attack vessels...

...which are plying across the region,

moving from west to east,
or east to west.

The growing number
of incidents is worrisome...

...for authorities patrolling the Straits,

where pirates vary in their tactics.

Many pirate groups amount
to little more than ordinary burglars,

looking to get on to a ship quickly
without being detected,

and grabbing whatever they can get
their hands on.

For an experienced pirate,

the boarding
and taking control of a ship...

...can be completed
in under five minutes.

But other pirates
have become highly organized...

...and professional in their tactics,

targeting equipment
or larger sums of money...

...often held in the captain's safe.

These organized groups are considered
heavily armed and dangerous.

They normally operate in groups...

...and the number
of personnel in one group...

...will be between six to eight men.

Normally they would carry one small arm,
pistol or even a revolver.

And they also carry long knives.

Parang we call it.

And some might carry an axe
or even a machete.

And what they normally do
is attack ships which are anchored,

or ships that are moving
but of low freeboard.

On April 25th, 2010,

another group of pirates
approach a fishing boat...

...off the northern coast of Malaysia.

One of the fishermen would not survive.

Across Asia,

high seas pirates are staging a comeback.

These hardened criminals are once again
operating in organized groups,

terrorizing vessels
along busy shipping lands...

...from India to the Philippines.

The nature of their attack is swift,
coordinated and professional.

Those ship robbery cases,

it is more usually small boats
with about four to six crew,

climbing on board in the middle
of the night when they are least vigilant.

April 25th, 2010.

A band of pirates
approach a fishing trawler...

...off the northern coast of Malaysia,

near the border of Thailand.

Suddenly, the pirates open fire.

A 24-year-old Thai fisherman
is shot four times in the abdomen...

...and is later pronounced dead.

The pirates quickly flee the scene.

Bangladesh, October 27th, 2004.

The bodies of 14 fishermen...

...are found inside the refrigerated hold
of a fishing trawler.

Authorities report that a group
of pirates attacked the vessel,

pushed the crew inside the hold,

and locked the hatches above them.

The men froze to death.

These are highly secretive criminals,

hiding out in isolated waterways
of countries like Indonesia.

Few people have ever been granted
access into the underworld...

...of real Southeast Asian pirates.

This style of piracy uses the element
of surprise to instill fear in the crew.

With their cooperation assured,

the pirates can easily take...

...whatever valuables
they can get their hands on.

Various pirate groups can be found
operating from secret bases...

...located deep within
the Indonesian archipelago...

...where thousands of small islands
provide ample space to hide.

From Aceh in the west,

to Batam Island...

...and further east to Sulawesi,

these groups launch their attacks.

These criminal organizations
are responsible...

...for countless incidents of violence
in the area in recent years.

The violence can be particularly bad...

...when their victims are uncooperative.

In these cases,

a professional pirate
won't hesitate to use his weapon.

Blood may be spilled,

sending a message
to the rest of the crew.

But every group has its own methods
and its own tools of the trade.

Pirate activity is extremely difficult
for law enforcement agents to track.

With such a large area of ocean
in which to operate,

Pirates can easily shift
their activities...

...based on the presence of police.

I think this is all coming down
to when the policeman is round the corner,

the crime takes place
and will take place in another location.

So what we have actually seen
over the last five years...

...that when the law enforcement
start zooming in on a particular area,

they will start shifting.

And they will go to another
new area where...

...it seem to be more
porous and more lucrative.

Again when that start to build up...

...and the picture start to depict...

...that this is the area of concern,

and the law enforcement
start to move in, again they move out.

Pirates in Southeast Asia are finding
new and potentially deadly methods...

...of making big money.

Certain groups are now using kidnappings
to improve their earnings.

The hostages are usually
well-connected citizens,

or business owners who can afford
to pay a large ransom for their release.

The victims are held at secret locations,

either at sea, or sometimes on land,

until the pirates receive their payoff.

By taking one hostage,

the pirate groups can earn tens
of thousands of US dollars...

...in ransom money,

paid in cash.

The pirates use the sea
to their advantage at every turn.

And they simply do not believe
they will be caught.

Many of these men
have become career criminals.

Losing sight of right and wrong.

With no moral values,

these pirates stop at nothing.

Whether robbing a ship,

taking a hostage,

or even taking a life.

From kidnappings to hijacking boats,

Southeast Asian pirates...

...are now reaching a level
of organization...

...that has never been seen before.

International pirate syndicates...

...are now under the control
of secretive and ruthless kingpins,

who are turning the pirate game
into a multi-million dollar industry.

Pirates in Southeast Asia...

...are entering the world
of international organized crime,

...chasing down million dollar targets.

February 6th, 2010.

The Singapore vessel Asta...

...disappears off the island
of Tioman, Malaysia.

Two months later, on April 19th,

a second tugboat is targeted.

Fifteen pirates attack
the Singapore-registered vessel...

...called the PU 2007.

Just eight days later,

on the 27th of April,

pirates hijack a third tugboat.

The Atlantic 3 goes missing
near Bintan Island, Indonesia,

directly across the Strait from Singapore.

The attacks on three different tugboats
within such a short period of time...

...raise flags with investigators.

The hijackings bear all the markings...

...of an organized
and coordinated effort...

...by an international criminal syndicate.

Today, tugboats seem to be
the prime target.

Two main reasons.

One is that tugboats
are usually very slow moving...

...and they got very low freeboard
so they are very easy to fall.

And there's a second hand market today
for tugboats to be repainted and resold.

With tugboats ranging in value...

...from half a million,
up to 8 million US dollars or more,

the pirates were under orders
from the syndicate...

...to take control of the vessels.

Through a network
of black-market contacts,

the tugboat had been pre-sold
to a buyer...

...who was waiting
in the Philippines.

One month after it disappeared
off Bintan Island,

the Atlantic 3 tugboat was recovered
by the Philippine Coast Guard,

2500 kilometres
from where she had been hijacked.

The ship had been issued with new papers,

was flying under a new flag,

and had a new name welded to its side.

The Philippine Coast Guard
actually found the vessel in the shipyard.

They were in the midst
of trying to remove the tag well...

...to rechange the identity.

And they had a ready buyer,

and this buyer produced papers,

obviously,
these were not genuine documents.

So straightaway, they were arrested...

and the whole proceedings start,
the prosecution.

And the tugboat has been returned
to the owner.

These incidents are further evidence...

...that pirates are now operating
at a level of organization...

...never seen before,

with a network that stretches across
an unknown number of countries.

there is actually a syndicate involved...

...because it involves a group...

...actually identifying
which tugboat to target at.

They know how much shield they have.

They know where it is supposed to go to
and then they board the ship.

After they board the ship and taken,

they hand over to another group
who will do the repainting job.

And then ultimately, once this is done,

they will hand over the third group
who will do the actual sale.

So it's a whole syndicate involved.

These underground syndicates
are believed to be run by crime bosses...

...with connections
deep into the shipping industry.

The boss receives detailed information
from a shipping industry insider.

Everything is revealed.

From the vessel's schedule
to the nature of the cargo...

...and number of crew on-board.

With this information,
the pirates are ready to attack.

And when these people, informer, said...

"If you want we can hijack this ship."

Then after that, he'll call people
in Batam,

Karimun, you know, Riau Island.

Saying, “Hey, guys, I need..."

"I don't know, 10, 15 people to hijack
this tanker on these dates.”

And then you have people
in the Riau islands,

they know where
these potential pirates are.

But the money
does no good to these men...

once they find themselves in prison.

Pirates found guilty in court
face steep jail terms,

and depending on national laws,

may face various forms
of corporal punishment as well.

We, Malaysia, we don't have a Piracy Act.

We have our...

We are using our Penal Code there.

That's good enough.

We secure them
through the acts of group robbery,

which can be sentenced up
to the maximum of 20 years imprisonment.

The seven pirates responsible
for the attack on the MT Front Queen,

a tanker hijacked in Malaysian waters...

...were charged and convicted
of armed robbery at sea.

After arresting them,

what we did was we carried out
the investigation to confirm the incident.

So during the trial,

they pleaded guilty...

...and they were sentenced
to 12 years imprisonment.

And were given three strokes
of the rotan.

Doing hard time has a way
of bringing criminals...

...back down to reality.

Losing one's freedom...

...inevitably opens the eyes
of even the hardest criminals.

Fasial is a former pirate...

...who was caught in an undercover
sting operation.

In areas like Aceh, Indonesia,

it's clear that years of civil war
and widespread poverty...

...drive many young men to crime.

With large ships constantly sailing by,

symbols of international
business and wealth,

many fall to the temptations
of a criminal life.

As long as there is poverty,

and the hardships that come with it,

there may always be
those willing to risk their freedom...

...and even their lives,

for more money.

For those pirates
who remain still at large,

its only a matter of time
before the law catches up with them.

And when that happens,

their only hope for reform...

...will be spending
some hard time behind bars.

Our maritime areas is very secure,

very much under control as compared
to the other parts of the world.

The tendency of people...

...trying to interfere...

...with our local fishermen,

they will face
a serious oppression from us.

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