THE THEFT OF A TANKER IN THAILAND SEEMS TO INDICATE THE RETURN OF ORGANIZED CRIME, ACCORDING TO MARITIME SECURITY.

Security in the Maritime Industry According to the Thai tanker robbery, organized crime may be making a comeback. The assault on the Thai tanker CP41, which took place on the 23rd of June off the eastern coast of Malaysia, seems to have been a highly organized and meticulously planned operation. An operation of this kind has not been witnessed in the area for around two years. Six pirates armed with knives and firearms stormed the ship in the middle of the night when it was transiting diesel oil from Malaysia to Songkhla. The ship was carrying around three million liters of diesel oil. They were responsible for the destruction of the ship’s security alert system, the violent detention of the captain and sixteen other crew members on deck, and the subsequent sailing of the tanker to an unknown location, where 1.5 million liters of diesel oil were later transferred into another vessel. The crew’s personal things as well as the ship’s valuables were stolen by the pirates before they managed to escape. There has not been a single report of an assault of this kind in the area since the later half of the year 2015. Over the course of many years, there were a significant number of hijackings that were of a similar kind. Between March 2012 and August 2015, there were a total of 53 truck hijackings that were recorded. However, in the latter half of 2015, there was a significant decrease in the number of assaults, which coincided with a significant decline in the prices of commodities. The Malacca Strait was the location where the first complaint of a hijacking for the purpose of goods theft was made to the International Maritime Bureau in February of the year 2000. When it was taken over by the hijackers, the ship was carrying palm oil and was sailing from Port Klang, which is located on the western coast of Malaysia, to India. Afterwards, in May of 2000, the warship was discovered off the coast of China after having been renamed. There was a widespread belief that the shipment had been sold to Chinese purchasers. Since the beginning of time, there has been a consistent pattern of pirate assaults in the area during that period. Pirates were well-armed, in possession of modern weaponry, and they made use of vessels that could travel at fast speeds. In addition to carrying out the operation with what seemed to be military precision, they appeared to be familiar with the ship’s systems and procedures. They seized custody of the ship and brought it to a place where the merchandise was moved to another vessel. This was done rather than just ransacking the ship in search of riches. In a number of instances, it was later discovered that ship captains, crew members, and employees of shipping companies had been involved in the planning of the crimes. This indicates that the criminal operation was extremely sophisticated, well-planned, and meticulously prepared. All of this constitutes an expensive overhead that had to be funded by the criminal networks. Many people believe that the decrease in criminal activity in recent years can be attributed to the increased efficiency of policing and patrolling by the governments of Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. However, it is possible that the decrease in such activities was caused by decreased commodity prices, which resulted in the criminal operation no longer being cost-effective. In light of this, why has there been a recent assault in the area that is comparable to the one that occurred so long ago? It’s possible that the solution lies in the rise in the pricing of commodities over the course of the last 18 months. For instance, the price of Marine Gas Oil (MGO) in the area has increased from around twenty-nine dollars per metric ton in February of 2016, to over four hundred fifty dollars per metric ton at the present time. This is a significant increase over the course of the period, and it provides the criminal organizations that have been inactive for a considerable amount of time with a much bigger profit margin. The result is that it is possible that we will observe additional criminal activity in the region that is similar to what we have seen in the past. This will necessitate increased levels of policing by the nations that are located in the surrounding area, which is an extremely challenging task over such a large region, or the utilization of embarked security teams that are supplied by commercial companies. marine safety and security