By 2005, when pirates hijacked the first big international vessel in the Gulf of Aden, the war in Somalia had been going on for 30 years. The war with Ethiopia was followed by a series of uprisings, which literally tore the country to pieces, controlled by rivaling warlords.

The poachers made use of the lack of coast guards. Trawlers from all over the world were scooping $300 mln a year worth of tuna, shrimp, and lobsters. Moreover, the companies with connections to Italian mafia started dumping toxic waste into local waters. This had a negative impact on the only source of income of extremely poor Somali fishermen. After several attempts to ‘tax’ the international waste-throwers and poachers, they started a really profitable business.