Sounds like one of Rico's novels

The New York Times has the story by Jeffrey Gettleman and Michael Schwirtz (which Rico already wrote):

Somalia’s notorious pirates have staged perhaps their most brazen attack yet, seizing a Ukrainian ship in the Indian Ocean full of arms bound for Kenya’s military, including dozens of battle tanks, maritime and diplomatic officials said Friday.
Somalia’s 1,880-mile coastline is infested with pirates, and they have been striking with increasing impunity, grabbing everything from private sailing yachts to oil tankers. They then usually demand millions of dollars in ransom for the ships and their crews.
But this time the pirates may have got more than they bargained for. Unloading the tanks is likely to be well beyond the capacity of the pirates, experts said. Meanwhile, an American naval vessel was Friday in hot pursuit to intercept the ship and the Russian Navy said it was not far behind.
The Ukrainian ship was seized Thursday evening about 200 miles off the coast of Somalia.
According to Andrew Mwangura, the program coordinator of the Seafarers’ Assistance Program in Kenya, the ship was carrying around 30 T-72 battle tanks, which were to be offloaded in Mombasa, Kenya.
“These pirates are getting bolder ever day,” said Mr. Mwangura, whose organization tracks pirate attacks. “They are now going to use these weapons as a bargaining chip.”
A Western diplomat in Kenya, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters, said the pirates would not have the know-how or the equipment to unload the tanks, which weigh more than 80,000 pounds. “If there are tanks on board,” the diplomat said, “I don’t think there’s a chance in hell they can get them unloaded.”
Kenyan and Western officials said that an American warship was steaming toward the hijacked Ukrainian ship to intercept it, and the Russian Navy announced on Friday that it too was sending a warship, named the Dauntless, to the region.
Lt. Commander Bill Speaks, a spokesman for the United States military, said on Friday afternoon, “We are aware of the situation and actively tracking it.”
The pirates are often former fishermen who have turned to the more lucrative work of plying the seas with binoculars and rocket-propelled grenades. They travel in light speedboats, deployed from a mother ship far out at sea.
When pirates tried to attack an American naval supply ship earlier this week, the Navy ship fired warning shots and the pirates fled.
Alfred Mutua, a spokesman for the Kenyan government, said the tanks and other arms were for the Kenyan military, which has become a key ally of the West in the war against terrorism.
“We’re concerned,” Dr. Mutua said. “This is a big loss for us.” But, he added, “at least we have insurance.”
The attacks sometimes take place as far out as 300 miles from shore. This year is one of the worst on record for pirate attacks in the region, with more than 50 ships attacked, 25 hijacked, and 14 still currently being held by pirates.
Somali officials say the pirates are growing in numbers, with more than 1,000 gunmen at their disposal, and they have evolved into a sophisticated organized crime ring with their headquarters along the rocky shores of northern Somalia. One Somali official who asked not to be identified described the pirates as an oceangoing 'mafia' and said they had netted millions of dollars which they use to buy fancy cars and big houses. “Paying the ransoms is just making this worse,” the Somali official said.
European countries and the United States have tried to crack down on the problem, with different navies patrolling the waters and escorting United Nations-chartered ships bringing food to Somalia. An official in the Ukrainian Embassy in Nairobi said Ukraine was closely watching the situation but had scant information about the hijacked ship. According to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry’s Web site, there were 21 people aboard, including 17 Ukrainians, three Russians and a Latvian. The site did not describe the cargo. An official at the Mombasa port said the ship, called the Faina and registered in Belize, was due to dock at 6 a.m. on Monday, and that it was carrying 2,320 tons of “project cargo,” a term that is usually used to describe heavy machinery.
According to the Russian Interfax news agency, a Ukrainian state arms exporter shipped 33 tanks, a significant amount of ammunition and grenade launchers to Kenya, all in line with Ukrainian law. More worrisome, he said, was the prospect that the ship was carrying smaller armaments, machine guns, mortars or light artillery, which could be easily funneled to insurgents battling the government.
In the past week, insurgents linked to Somalia’s ousted Islamist movement have mounted attacks on government forces in the capital, Mogadishu. Dozens of civilians have been killed and thousands are fleeing again. Somalia has been enmeshed in chaos for 17 years, since the central government collapsed and clan warlords carved the country into fiefdoms. The fighting, however, has intensified since December 2006, when Ethiopian troops invaded the country and overthrew a grassroots Islamist movement that controlled much of Somalia.
Ethiopian and American officials said the Islamists were sheltering al Qaeda terrorists, and the American military has helped the Ethiopians hunt down Islamist leaders.

Rico says they should just sink the damn ship and have done with it...