By Jon Schuppe
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — The Somali teenager who led a failed pirates’ raid on a U.S.-flagged ship in the Indian Ocean last spring was also involved in a pair of earlier attacks in nearby waters, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.
Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse, 18, was allegedly among a band of armed bandits who boarded two ships in the days before the botched takeover of the Maersk Alabama, prosecutors alleged in a new indictment. In each of those first two cases, Muse and his partners took the crews and captains hostage. Prosecutors did not identify the two ships, but said the second one remains under control of pirates.
In early April, Muse and three others left the second ship to board the Maersk Alabama, which was transporting humanitarian supplies off the coast of Somalia. Muse, acting as the pirates leader, ordered the ship to stop. The pirates then took the captain, Richard Phillips, hostage on a lifeboat.
The standoff ended four days later when Navy sharpshooters killed Muse’s partners. Muse was arrested and taken to New York to face charges of piracy, hostage taking, kidnapping and other offenses.
He was scheduled to make a brief appearance in federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday to face additional charges relating to the two earlier attacks.
“Modern-day pirates who wreak havoc off faraway costs will be met with modern-day justice in the United States,” Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, said in a statement.
