T

he Indonesian Navy'€™s Western Fleet (Armabar) commander Rear Admiral Taufiqurrahman announced on Tuesday that the Navy had managed to identify the mastermind behind the recent hijacking of Malaysian-flagged oil vessel MT Orkim Harmony.

Taufiqurrahman said a number of Indonesians had served as executors in the hijacking with financial support from a Thai citizen. '€œWe thank God for our success in revealing the case in about a month,'€ he said.

He said the piracy network had been revealed following the arrest of AJ, suspected to be one of the masterminds behind the MT Orkim hijacking, by Navy personnel on Aug. 27 at an apartment in Jakarta.

It is from AJ that the Navy ascertained that the network had so far committed five hijacking operations. AJ also told the apparatus that the operations were funded by a Thai citizen initialized as ST, alias AV.

'€œWe can conclude that the piracy of the oil vessel was a pure crime committed to claim insurance,'€ Taufiqurrahman said, adding that his personnel had coordinated with Thai authorities to arrest the suspected mastermind.

MT Orkim Harmony was hijacked on June 11, 2015 and was reported missing from the sight of radar. The vessel was last detected on Johor Bahru waters. It was carrying 6,000 metric tons of oil worth 21 million Malaysian Ringgit from Singapura to Kuantan. It had 22 crew members comprising 16 Malaysians, five Indonesians and a Myanmarese.