21st-century pirates: armed gangs of Somalis are threatening international shipping and hurting an already weak global economy.

• Author: Gettleman, Jeffrey
• Position: INTERNATIONAL

Rear Admiral Giovanni Gumiero of the Italian Navy is on a pirate hunt. From the deck of a destroyer cruising the pirate-infested waters of the Indian Ocean off Somalia's coast, he has all the modem tools-radar, sonar, infracameras, helicopters, a cannon that can sink a ship 10 miles away-to take on a centuries-old problem that harks back to the days of schooners and eye patches.

But Somalia's pirates seem undeterred. In the last few months alone, they've attacked more than 30 vessels, including a Saudi oil tanker carrying 2 million barrels of oil worth more than $80 million and a Ukrainian ship carrying $30 million worth of military equipment like grenade launchers and tanks. They even tried to hijack an American cruise ship, but it managed to escape.

"This is really getting out of control," says Mohamed Osman Aden, a Somali diplomat in Kenya.

Usually armed with just assault rifles, the pirates use fast-moving small boats to pull alongside their prey and scamper on board with ladders or rusty grappling hooks. Once on deck, they hold the crew, who are usually unarmed, at gunpoint until a ransom is paid, usually $1 million to $2 million.

Gumiero's ship is one of more than a dozen warships from the European Union, Turkey, India, Saudi Arabia, China, Malaysia, Australia, the United States and soon Japan patrolling the waters off Somalia in an international effort to stop piracy, which has erupted into a major problem in the last few years.

But crushing the pirates will not be easy. They are sea savvy. They are fearless. They are rich and getting richer, with the latest high-tech gadgetry like handheld GPS units.

More than 100 ships were attacked off Somalia's coast in 2008, far more than in any previous year on record. United Nations officials estimate that Somali pirates netted as much as $120 million in ransom payments.

The piracy problem is an outgrowth of the chaos in Somalia, which has been without a real government since 1991. Its economy is now dominated by armed gangs who make their money from a combination of roadblocks, kidnappings for ransom, and now piracy, explains Ken Menkhaus, a Somalia expert at Davidson College in North Carolina.

"This has been going on for a long time onshore," he says. "All you're seeing now is a movement of that same activity offshore."

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