Five groups behind piracy in Somalia

WASHINGTON — Five well-organized pirate groups conduct most of the pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia, but they hire local fisherman to ferry them out to their quarry to avoid detection, according to a memo prepared by the staff of the House Armed Services Committee in early March.

It is very much a business. According to the memo, one captured pirate explained how the ransom — on average $1 million to $2 million per boat — is divided among participants. Twenty percent goes to the bosses of the group, 20 percent is capital investment, to include guns, ammunition, fuel, food, cigarettes and other provisions for future missions, 30 percent to the pirates, and 30 percent in bribes to government officials.

In 2008, pirates operating off Somalia earned $30 million in ransom through the seizure of 42 vessels.

The pirate groups draw their members from large provincial clans, which are extended family networks that divided themselves into smaller subclans, the memo reported.