NORFOLK, Va. — A federal grand jury has indicted 13 suspected pirates from Somalia and one from Yemen in the February hijacking of a yacht that left four Americans dead, the U.S. Justice Department said Thursday.
Department spokesman Peter Carr said the men face piracy, kidnapping and firear
ms charges.
The suspected pirates are expected to make an initial court appearance Thursday in Norfolk, which last year became home to the first successful piracy prosecution in nearly 200 years.
The Quest’s owners, Jean and Scott Adam of Marina del Rey, Calif., along with their friends Bob Riggle and Phyllis Macay of Seattle, were shot to death after pirates took them hostage several hundred miles south of Oman.
It was the first time U.S. citizens have been killed in a wave of pirate attacks that have plagued the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean in recent years, which are typically motivated by the potential for millions of dollars in ransom money.
The attacks are sparked by the potential of taking home millions of dollars in ransom money.
Pirates have increased attacks off the coast of East Africa despite an international flotilla of warships dedicated to protecting vessels and stopping the pirate assaults.
U.S. naval forces were tracking the Americans’ captured yacht with unmanned aerial vehicles and four warships, and negotiations were under way when the pirates fired a rocket-propelled grenade.
Then gunfire was heard aboard the yacht. Special forces boarded the vessel and found the Americans had been shot, according to the military.
The group is the latest to be brought to Norfolk to face charges stemming from attacks on ships off the cost of Africa.
Last April, a federal grand jury indicted 11 in separate attacks on two U.S. Navy ships, the USS Ashland and the USS Nicholas. The Virginia-based ships were part of an international flotilla protecting shipping in the pirate-infested waters off Africa.
In November, five Somali men were convicted on federal piracy charges related to the attack on the USS Nicholas. They are expected to be sentenced this month.
A sixth pleaded guilty. Trials for the remaining five are pending.
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