On a dark night 18 months ago, 12 Indonesian pirates, armed with knives and guns crept up and boarded an Indonesian tanker from the back. Undetected, they made their way to the bridge, easily capturing the unsuspecting crew. "I had to please them, make them happy so that they would keep me alive", comments one captive. Shots fired by the Navy across the bow are not enough to stop the hijacked boat. Last year 469 ships with cargoes worth over 32 billion dollars were seized and 72 seamen were killed by pirates. Increasingly, huge cargo ships are targeted, even oil tankers; their multi-million dollar cargoes seized by highly organised international syndicates. This is not the romantic swashbuckling buccaneers of legend, but vicious organised crime syndicates. We follow the extraordinary story of the freighter Inabukwa, pirated off Indonesia, then turned up in the Philippines with a crude paint job, name change and new crew. Down in the hold we see the ship's booty - four million dollars worth of white pepper and gleaming tin. Modern day pirates may be armed to the teeth, but modern day merchant ships are armed only with fire hoses. "So it's very easy for them to come aboard and take over" observes one crew member. With seafarers unarmed, maritime authorities are the only line of defence. Over the last ten years, the Thai Navy has proven that it's prepared to shoot back. The problem here is that the authorities are so under-funded and disorganised, that the pirates operate with impunity.

Produced by ABC Australia