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fter more than a month of pursuit, the Indonesian Navy has arrested the alleged mastermind behind the hijacking of Malaysian oil tanker the MT Orkim Harmony, a Navy officer has said.

Navy spokesman Col. M. Zainudin said that the Navy'€™s Western Fleet Quick Response (WFQR) IV team had apprehended an Indonesian suspect, identified as Albert Yohanes, at an apartment in Grogol Petamburan, West Jakarta, on Thursday.

'€œAY [Albert Yohanes] is suspected of being the mastermind behind the hijacking drama of the Malaysian-flagged vessel. The success of the quick response team was achieved in no small part thanks to the tireless efforts in pursuing one of the main targets on the wanted list for an estimated one-and-a-half months,'€ Zainudin told The Jakarta Post late on Friday.

The suspect is currently in the custody of the Navy Military Police (Pomal) in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, where he is undergoing questioning, before being handed over to the police for further investigation.

'€œHe did not resist when he was arrested. It seems that he was aware that we had been tracking him for a while,'€ Zainudin said.

He said he could not confirm if the suspect would be tried in the country or extradited to Malaysia.

'€œWe are still waiting on further coordination. Rest assured that we will hand him [Albert] over to the police. The other eight suspects are also still under the watch of the Vietnamese authorities,'€ Zainudin said.

Back in June, eight men were detained after being stranded on Vietnam'€™s southwestern Tho Chu Island, on the same day Malaysian law enforcers reported that pirates commandeering the MT Orkim Harmony had managed to escape.

The suspects were identified as Indonesians on June 24 by a team consisting of officials from the Indonesian Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City and the Indonesian Embassy in Hanoi, Vietnam.

The Indonesian Foreign Ministry dispatched an identification team after media quoted Malaysian navy chief Adm. Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Jaafar as saying that the eight hijackers spoke with Indonesian accents.

The media reported the eight suspects were identified as Hendry, 39, from Jakarta; Ruslan, 61, Kurnia Wan, 49, Randi Andilya, 19, and Ahjas, 35, from Natuna; Fauji, 27, from Medan; Abner, 28, from Bareland; and Khon Danyel Despol, 49, from Kisaran.

The MT Orkim Harmony was reported missing on June 12 after leaving Malacca on Malaysia'€™s west coast for Kuantan on the east coast. The vessel lost contact after traveling some distance across the South China Sea.

The tanker was carrying 6,000 tons of Research Octane Number (RON) 95 fuel, worth an estimated US$5.6 million, belonging to Malaysian state oil and gas company Petronas.

In the search for the missing tanker, the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) and the Royal Malaysian Navy (TLDM) requested assistance from the Indonesian Navy, to which the Western Fleet responded by deploying six warships and one Navy aircraft to lead patrols in Indonesian territorial waters.

The tanker was manned by a crew of 22, consisting of 16 Malaysian nationals, five Indonesians and one Myanmar citizen. All 22 were safe but the tanker'€™s cook, an Indonesian, was shot in the thigh.