Sea robbery attempt foiled by Singapore, Indonesian navies

Through close collaboration between Singaporean and Indonesian authorities, the Indonesian Navy apprehended three perpetrators who had boarded the Liberian-flagged bulk carrier Sam Jaguar in the Singapore Strait in the early morning (local time) of Monday, March 16, in the waters east of Pulau Karimun Kecil, Indonesia.

The Ministry of Defence of Singapore (MINDEF) said that the Republic of Singapore Navy’s (RSN) Maritime Security Task Force (MSTF) and Information Fusion Centre (IFC) played a key role in disrupting the sea robbery.

At 05:11 on Monday, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore’s (MPA) Port Operations Control Centre (POCC) received a report from Sam Jaguar that robbers had boarded their ship, and were locked up in the engine room by the ship crew.

The RSN’s MSTF commenced close monitoring of the vessel, and despatched the littoral mission vessel (LMV) RSS Independence and a Police Coast Guard craft towards the location of the incident, to be prepared to respond if the vessel entered Singapore territorial waters. Simultaneously, the RSN’s Information Fusion Centre (IFC) shared information on the incident and the perpetrators with the Indonesian authorities via the information-sharing portal IFC Real-time Information-sharing System (IRIS), and MPA’s POCC shared the report with the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against ships in Asia’s (ReCAAP) Information Sharing Centre in Singapore.

The Indonesian Navy subsequently deployed two ships and one helicopter to hail and board Sam Jaguar in Indonesian territorial waters. Acting on the information shared by the IFC, the Indonesian authorities successfully apprehended three perpetrators.

The crew on board the bulk carrier were safe and unharmed.