NAIROBI, Kenya — The saga over the Ukrainian arms freighter hijacked off Somalia’s coast more than four months ago drew to a close on Thursday almost exactly the way the pirates had predicted: with the booty.
According to the pirates and maritime officials in Kenya, the ship’s owners paid $3.2 million — in cash, dropped by parachute — and on Thursday evening the last of the heavily armed pirates made their way off the ship, the Faina.
“The fact that this took so long, that’s not good,” said one of the pirates, Isse Mohammed, in a telephone interview. “But we got the cash in hand, and that’s good. That’s what we’re interested in.”
Isse added that his gang would continue “hunting ships” because “that’s our business.”
Late Thursday night, Viktor Nikolsky, captain of the Faina, said that it was finally under the protection of the U.S. Navy and would head to Mombasa, Kenya.
