Pensionerade pirater

En kul inblick i hur de somaliska piraterna tänker ges av Reuters. Vill det sig väl kan man dra sig tillbaks efter ett par sjöröverier och leva på bytet. I Sverige.

The village of Hobyo is awash with role models for aspiring buccaneers.

Roble said a former colleague retired early and invested his piracy dividends in the business of supplying khat, a mild leafy narcotic well-loved by many Somali men.

Flourishing business ensures he can afford the daily charter flights that deliver the perishable commodity from neighbouring producer Kenya.

"Thanks to him, we get khat everyday," Roble said.

The trade is lucrative but Roble has written it off as a business idea. Friends tell him that his face was broadcast on television while he was on the Ukrainian ship MV Faina, one of the most high-profile hijackings off Somalia.

"I would like to do the same and join him, but some of my former colleagues scared me. I am very afraid to travel."

The TV images also make it impossible for him to leave the country for Europe as a refugee. Another pirate forked out $16,000 to be taken to Sweden, he said.