Somali Pirates Release Ship and Crew After 6 Months
By REUTERS
Published: December 10, 2009

Somali pirates have released the Greek-owned vessel MT Ariana and its 24 Ukrainian crew members more than six months after it was seized, its owners said Thursday. The owners said the company had paid a ransom to the gunmen holding the ship. The company declined to provide an amount, but a pirate said by telephone that $2.6 million had been paid. Pirates from Somalia have made tens of millions of dollars in ransoms, seizing commercial shipping in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden. A multinational naval deployment in the area seems only to have driven them to hunt farther from shore.