Pirates in the Baltic Sea?

Pirates? In Viking territory?

From the basic reports, and this is only one of them, follow the link for more, this sounds more like organized crime. Either way, this is strange to have been found in the civilized European waters! Next thing, they might find a Conservative up there and really throw things out of whack.

http://www.eaglespeak.us/2009/07/pirates-in-baltic-sea.html

A ship was hijacked in Swedish waters early Friday morning last week, news wire TT reports. The boat was sailing between the islands of Öland and Gotland when the hijacking occurred.

Arriving in a boat with "police" painted on the side, a group of masked men searched the Malta-registered timber boat after tying up the crew, which was Russian.

The Swedish police only got word of the hijacking when the Russian Foreign Ministry called the Swedish police to ask why they acted in that fashion. But the Swedish police had never boarded the boat.

Ingemar Isaksson, who is heading the police investigation, said on Thursday that the hijackers spent more than 12 hours on the ship. Though it's not completely clear what the English-speaking hijackers were after, the police suspect they were looking for drugs.

"This is the first time that I've heard about something like this happening in Swedish waters," Ingemar Isaksson told TT.

Swedish police started investigating the case on Wednesday, but they have still haven't come into contact with the ship, which apparently continued its normal route after the attack.