Eight Russian ship hijackers arrested

MOSCOW, Aug. 18 (UPI) -- Eight suspected hijackers of the long-missing cargo ship Arctic Star have been arrested by the Russian navy without firing a shot, authorities said Tuesday.

The lumber-bearing ship's odyssey apparently began in Swedish waters July 24, two days after it left port in Finland bound for Algeria, and ended about 300 miles from Cape Verde off the northwestern coast of Africa.

Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said navy personnel arrested four Estonians, two Latvians and two Russians after finding and boarding the Arctic Star, nearly three weeks after the Russian ship was last heard from off Portugal, RIA Novosti reported.

Serdyukov said the ship's 15-member crew was unharmed during the ordeal, in which the hijackers allegedly approached the ship in a speedboat, boarded it and demanded that all communications equipment be turned off.

"The investigation into the hijacking is continuing on board the Ladny frigate," Serdyukov said in a statement to reporters. "We are taking measures to send the crew (of the Arctic Sea) back home."

The ship's captain had radioed its Finnish operator, Sochart, July 24 that armed hijackers disguised as police had boarded the ship and beaten crew members. Later that day, he radioed again to say they had left, but they apparently remained aboard the vessel, ordering it to continue southward through to the Atlantic Ocean, The New York Times reported.