June 25, 2025 • 26 mins
Slippery Slope is a four-part "true crime" podcast from Dave O'Neil and Brad Oakes.
It’s one thing to want a water slide but then you have to deliver it.
Not so easy when you make it in Turkey and bring it through the Suez Canal.
Warning this episode contains at least 23 mention of Jack Sparrow.
Slippery Slope is written and hosted by Dave O'Neil and Brad Oakes.
Original music by Itinerant Production
Editing by Courtney Carthy
Published by Nearly Media
Thank you to all the guests involved in the making of Slippery Slope.
In this episode:
- Kim Coghlan
- Danielle Slade
- Troy Rowling
- Rob Katter MP
- Shae Donovan at the pool
Find more information about the podcast at nearly.com.au
Looking for a comedian for your next event?
Contact: hi@nearly.com.au
Support on Lenny.fm: https://www.lenny.fm/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Slippery Slope, a true crime podcast about Mount Io and
the Missing water Slide with Dave O'Neill and Brad Oaks.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hello, it's Dave O'Neill and Bradford os and.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
It's episode three of our podcast, Slippery Slope. Now let's
get you one up to speak. They're just tuned in
Mount Eyes. Are wanted the water slide. They got it
made in Turkey and at the end of the last episode,
what happened Bradford.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Well, the slide didn't turn up.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
No.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
No, it's a pretty big thing to go missing, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Yes, So it's on a ship. It's on its way
through the Sewer's Canal and there's some kind of pirate incident.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
Just for geography, Yes, it's Sewers Canal. Then it becomes
the Red Sea and then I believe it goes into
the Gulf of Oman, Yeah, and then into the Indian
Ocean and on.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
The other side it's the Mediterranean.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
And Mediterranean exactly.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
If you're coming from Turkey, you're coming through the Red
Sea into the Sewers Canal into the Mediterraneans.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Correct, it's a shortcut. It's a shortcut so that you
have to go all the way around down past All Africa.
I think it's quite a devilish as well to.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Go past and South Africa's on the bottom, and then
you've got to go up and it's another week or
two weeks or something. Yeah, well, let's get a bit
more information from Mark Miller, the project manager.
Speaker 5 (01:29):
Turkey's I suppose that's where the one of the main
manufacturers for the water slides are and cost of fishient
time efficient's questionable, but definitely cost efficient. So originally it
was a sixteen week procurement lead time which turned into
I think just over twenty four weeks up.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
What were the delays? There were rumors of pirate.
Speaker 5 (01:53):
The pirate rumors are pretty much true. There was. There
was a bit of an issue the Sew's Canal where
one of the continents got herld up and pirates seemed
to take a bit of a lake into the slides
and off off that went.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Where did it go? Maybe?
Speaker 5 (02:13):
Yeah, the pirates love slides. Maybe they've got their own
little water parks somewhere. Pirates of the Caribbean, you know,
they love it.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
So what did it go missing? Or did you find it?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Or they went missing?
Speaker 5 (02:24):
So they then to re manufacture and we send out
more doc in hence the heavy delay to the project.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
The original water slide actually went.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Missing parts, parts of it in parts.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Was this in the Sewer's Canal after the Sewers Canals?
Speaker 5 (02:39):
I believe it's in the siouxse Canal.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Well, that's interesting he believes it happened in the Sewers Canal.
But what is the history of the Sewers Canal.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
I think the French started to build it.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
I remember seeing photos of it being dug out by shovels.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
In seventeen ninety eight, Napoleon tried to find the remnants
of an ancient waterway. Oh, which just started this conversation
about this was canw A bit like the trains of
an Olburne Airport gets talked about a lot.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yeah, people get their photo taken, but nothing much happens.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
I remember when it was built because of the Crown.
I saw it in the Crown. NASA controlled it.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
It opened in under French control in eighteen sixty nine, right,
I think people kind of squabble over it for years,
but then NASA, the Egyptian president.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Well, I can read this here.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
In nineteen fifty one, Egypt repudiated the nineteen thirty six
Treaty with Great Britain. Britain had to remove their troops
nineteen fifty six. NASA responded by nationalizing the canal on
twenty sixth July nineteen fifty six.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
There was a bit of a hooha about that because
that's in the crown, so NASA president of Egypt. Yeah,
he was one that controlled it.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
In the end, it became an enormous source of revenue
for them because how much does.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
It go through? I think it's six hundred grand, isn't
it for a ship? Six hundred grand?
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Yeah, that's there's your city link, as you're told.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
But importantly it's a US dollars as a great source
of US dollars. Everybody has to pay and use of dollars,
which leads me to think that it's gold mine and
for Egypt.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Yeah, and it's not that white. I know, it's not
that wide, so it would be easy to attack in it,
but it'd be hard to get out anyway. We need
a bit more information about the actual attack, like what
happened was eating stolen. Let's go to Daniel from Simplex,
who was involved in making the slide and delivering the slide.
Speaker 6 (04:24):
It goes into production and yeah, it all comes in
forty four containers with the steel work and all the
bolts like a package sort of kit, and with drawings.
It don't make sense. And then you try and put
it all together over here.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Now, what happened with the Mountay as a water slide.
Speaker 6 (04:37):
It's a little bit hard to get an extension of
time when you approach the council and say pirates were.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Involved, right, so pirates were involved.
Speaker 6 (04:46):
Pirates were involved. I think the pirates actually boarded the ship.
I don't know if it was Jack Sparrow or not.
That's unconfirmed.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Okay, so pirates were definitely involved. I don't really understand
how they got actually got the stuff, because when we
think of containers on a ship, they're closed off, you know,
the big classic metal containers that we see on trucks,
on trains, et cetera. But apparently these were something called
I think open top containers. Well, let Daniel explain.
Speaker 6 (05:14):
The steel work comes with no lids. They're open top containers.
All the steel works they loaded in from the top.
When it turns up the site, you unloaded with a
crane or a front and rip it out from the
top at all fiberglasses in what we call high kids,
which are a little bit higher than normal containers, and
they pack all the fiberglass pieces in sections like that.
It's actually quite a skillful process to pack a forty
(05:36):
foot container tightly with fiberglass. If customs end up getting
it and rip it all out, they can never get
it back in, which is normally one of our issues
we can have.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Right So, now understand that the containers are open, you
can actually get in there and have a look and
get stuff out. Interesting that both the guys have mentioned
Jack Sparrow a.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Bit of sadness for me.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
There's so many other pirates, I know, you know, why
would Jack Sparrow be.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Captain Kid. You've got black Beard captain more than you've
got Captain Pugwash captain. I don't know if his I
don't think he was. I think it was. I think
it was Jack Sparrow.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
He's everyone mentions Jack Sparrow, Captain Hook, Captain Hook from
just you know, and don't reckon that story was just
made up as they went along.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
How he lose his hand on crocodile? Come on, mate, Yes,
he's got the ball.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Well, because we all think of pirates are something cute,
a parrot on their shoulder, a wooden leg, But of
course these are like Somali pirates.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
I have a pirate joke. Well, everybody knows the joke.
What's the pirate's favorite leader? Well, no, in fact, it's
the seas all.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Right, But have you seen that Tom Hanks movie Mister
Roberts where he's it's it's just it's like he's on
a big cargo ship and Somali pirates board and capture
the vessel. So it's those kinds of pirates. Yeah, I
believe it's not the cute pirates.
Speaker 4 (06:59):
Not a few pirates, and it's not the people who
back in the nineties were.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Just copying videos. They were pirates.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Oh yes, video pirates.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
The number one conserned the FBI at one stage.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Yeah, it's a crime.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Well, you know, Fast and Furious was about copying DVDs.
The first movie was about DVD theft.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
I had no idea. Yeah, I've never seen any of them.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Are there any other mentions of Jack Sparrow from anyone
on this podcast. Let's go to Cogo, the deputy mayor
of Mount iSER.
Speaker 7 (07:28):
Yeah, someone probably in Somalia has got half a slide,
so I don't know what they're doing with it. And
when they said pirates, I'm like, oh, Jack Sparrow, So
Jack Sparrot's the only pirate I'd like to meet.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
There we go another. Jack Sparrow mentioned you've got to
imagine though, so the pirates of the board of the ship,
they've got part of the water slide or something's happening.
But what's happening in Mount iSER. I mean, that's a
long way from the Sewers Canal, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
It's a long way from any water. It really does.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Yeah, exactly. Here's Danny l the former mayor.
Speaker 8 (07:59):
So when they said to me that the ship had
been taken over by pirates, and to me, it was
like the dogs ate my homework. You know, they haven't
ordered it. They're delaying and on purpose, and they're just
trying to get it after the elections. So it's not
something I could point and say to see, look what I've.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Done, you know, Yeah, Daniel the former me, well, I
suppose with local politics, people could be thinking this is
just something's made up, pirates in the Sewers Canal.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
You're like, what it sounds like something Buiolchie Peterson would
have said in the seventies or eighties.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
You know, well, you know.
Speaker 9 (08:34):
Pirates, Jack, get out, bloody Jacks Barro or Bob Catter
would say, So let's cross the Shae Donovan, she actually
runs the aquatic center of the pull Man is where
the water slide is meant to be, So she's waiting
for the water slide.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
This is what she had to say when she heard
about the pirates.
Speaker 10 (08:50):
So I wasn't too sure what was going on because Mark,
the project manager, is a bit of a joker and
if there's something delayed in a contractor might be a
day late delivering something, he'll make a bit of a
joke about it. So I didn't really believe what he
was telling us. I thought it was just some gimmick
he was coming up with something. But then when we
found out for real it was a pirate attack on
(09:13):
the ship that was carrying the containers, Yeah, it was
a little bit like, oh, okay, of course this has
happened to us in Mount Eysa. What else would happen?
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Shay, who runs a pool in man eyes hats off
to her. She didn't mention Jack Sparrow When talking about pirates,
she's been the first not to mention Jack Sparrow. So okay,
there seems to be disagreement about where the attack actually happened.
Let's got to Mark Miller, the project manager.
Speaker 5 (09:39):
I believe it's in the Sioux's Canal, and then the
rest of it got diversed. So then the diversion that
didn't have to go run.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
The coast of Africa.
Speaker 5 (09:47):
Then, but the pirates attacked in the Siouxs Canal.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Then of course that takes a lot longer to go
around the bottom of Africa.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
Of course, of course, And he's the twenty four week delay.
Speaker 6 (09:57):
No, I wasn't in the canal. Yeah, it was in
the ocean bits around there. Have you ever seen that
Tom Hanks movie where he's at the end he's going
like oh yeah, Like yeah, I'm pretty sure it was
those type of guys.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
No, I don't really know.
Speaker 6 (10:10):
We've had a bit of pirate activity, but none that
have ever boarded the actual ship. Last year especially, there
was constant pirate doos and like I said, that's hard
to get it over along with the client pirates again,
sorry you water slide I can installed in time.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
But right, So this seems to be a bit of disagreement.
That's Daniel there from Swimplex about where the attack actually happened.
What's your thinking, Bradford. You've become an expert on sewers
Canal via the internet piracy.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Well also I tracked down expert.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
This is what we need. We need a piracy expert.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
Yeah, but you know, look, I was dubious in the
first place that anything would take part in a sewers canal,
just because of how much the Egyptian government would guard it.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
And it's so narrow.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Least, yeah, yeah, narrow.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
Yeah, And as we'll discover, there's also a definition of
piracy that's going to come into play.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Really, and there's a HOOTI rebels.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Well there's HOOTI rebels.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
And then so when people say Somali pirates, I looked
on the map and Somalia was like about well two
and a half thousand kilometers from the sewers Canal.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
So that's a long way to go to work.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
I mean, if you were a pirate, I mean it's
like sort of being in the nightclub or being outside
there's people lining up for the sewers Canal. Right, yeah,
now you could it's like lining up for a nightclub.
You wouldn't go into the nightclub, you'd I don't want
to talk about attacking people, but if you were going
to do something, surely you do it outside. Sure you
do it in the bit before the Sewers Canal.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
Well, it depends if they're going the way they were coming.
Don't coming from Turkey. So they're coming down.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Yeah, right, so they're coming down.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
I think you turn left at Israel or something like that,
and then you come to the Sewers Canal and get
in the canal.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Then you go into I think the Red Sea, and
then like I said, I think it's the Gulf.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
I'm learning that I don't know anything about geography.
Speaker 4 (11:56):
And then well, because what you've got coming from Turkey's
basically that's the.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
End of Europe.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
Yes, to me, it was dubius. Although we should cut
to the expert. Yes, find out a bit about piracy.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Tamson Page is We'll let her introduce herself, but she's
an academic with many qualifications in this area.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Hello.
Speaker 11 (12:18):
So I'm doctor Tamson Philip A. Page. I am an
associate professor at Deacon Law School. I did my m
phil at A and U studying the application of piracy
law in Somali counter piracy operations. And I did that
while also working with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.
That about Somali piracy would have been in twenty twelve
(12:41):
and twenty thirteen. I've also got a PhD in International
security law, and I teach and research in international law
and legal ethics.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
That's impressive. That's impressive. Is there piracy in the sewers Canal?
Speaker 11 (12:56):
The question that becomes if it's piracy or something else,
because legally it actually wouldn't be piracy at a pure
legal level, which is really quite interesting in that regard
because of some quirks of jurisdiction.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Right, well, because of the sewers Canal.
Speaker 11 (13:13):
Yeah, because the sewers Canal forms essentially they're straight for
international navigation. Piracy by legal definition can only occur in
international waters or the high seeds legally refer.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
To it, right, And so I mean, but are there
Somali pirates active in the sewers Canal?
Speaker 11 (13:32):
Not? In the sewers They're active mostly through the Red
Sea and the Horn of Africa, so down kind of
at the point where you have the Red Sea going
out into the Indian Ocean through the Gulf of Aden
and all of those areas kind of with Somalia and
Yemen on either side of that exit from the Red Sea.
Speaker 4 (13:52):
So if they're avowed pirates of declared pirates, but then
they actually committed crime in what is in international waters,
what do you designate them as.
Speaker 11 (14:04):
Su as canal? My understanding is Egyptian territory. So essentially
they are just engaging in theft or larceny or whatever
under Egyptian law. Because they're committing it in Egyptian internal waters.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
It seemed unlikely because the Egyptians seem to police it
so well, there wouldn't be a lot of crime going
on there, you know of that overt nature.
Speaker 11 (14:29):
Well, I wouldn't expect so, but it is a major waterway,
as we all found out when the ever given ran
aground at all. Global trade stopped for a few weeks
while they dug it out. The designation of pirate versus
just theft is literally one of did it happen more
than twelve nautical miles from the coast of a state?
(14:52):
If yes, it's piracy, If no, it's just armed robbery.
At c right National Maritime Organation, when keeping statistics on
this treat them as the one set of crime. But
legally you're only a pirate if you're doing this on
the high seas. And there's a whole bunch of really
interesting international political reasons for that, But generally speaking, yeah,
(15:16):
if it's not happening on the high seas, you're not
doing piracy. You're just engaging in theft.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
So it's a bit of a champagne versus sparkling wine thing,
isn't it?
Speaker 11 (15:26):
It is? But the reasons for it are less because
the French are snotting and weird, and more because countries
like Philippines and Indonesia and things like that have vast
amounts of what we call archipelagic waters where they have
exclusive jurisdiction and they don't want Chinese and US militaries
(15:46):
just sending their navy patrolling through all of these waters
under the guise of counter piracy operations.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
And also in the Suits Canal recently there's been they're
not called pirates, are called rebels, the Hooti rebels, which
they seem to have a different aim than say, the
normal standard Somali pirate. Is that correct?
Speaker 11 (16:07):
I mean, I'm reluctant to call them rebels because actually
they control seventy five percent of the populations in Yemen,
so calling them rebels seems to be a denial of
the fact that they are just the government of Yemen. Functionally.
These days, they're engaging in attacks on merchant shipping, they
claim out of solidarity and part of actions against Israel's
(16:30):
activities in Gaza. However, they're attacking merchant shipping, which is
just either a war crime or a crime against humanity.
It's either it's unlawful, regardless of the reasons for doing it.
But again, the question about whether or not that's piracy
comes down to whether or not you accept that the
Hohothies are just the government of Yemen or if they
(16:51):
are an independent belligerent organization that doesn't have governmental powers.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
And they're not stealing stuff, are they? They just seemed
to get on boats and hold hostages and stuff.
Speaker 11 (17:03):
They're not really stealing stuff. That doesn't mean Somali pirates
didn't really steal much either. Somali pirates were generally taking
ships hostage and holding them for ransom and then releasing
them with all the cargo and crew after ransoms had
been paid. But the Huthi are often doing a lot
of attacks with drones and things like that and sinking
(17:26):
motion shipping as well as hostage taking, etc. Their goal
is not economic, whereas Somali pirates goal was purely economic.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
So with this case that we're looking into, people are
in disagree about where the actual attack happened, but they
do believe that the so called pirates boarded the ship
and stole stuff. But I'm pretty sure now that we
talked to you and other accounts that it was in
the Red Sea. So they all seem to think it
was Somali pirates. Why would they take bits of a
(17:56):
water slide? They wouldn't know what that was, surely, I.
Speaker 11 (17:58):
Don't know whether they know it was. I mean that said,
they'd probably be able to tell what a water slide
is in Somalia just as well as anywhere else. However,
it all comes down to economics. Like pirates are driven
by what can we sell or in the case of
hostage shaking, how can we make a profit to make
ends meet in an area that has been destroyed by
(18:22):
civil war since nineteen ninety two. But the northern regions
are fairly stable with autonomous governments, but those governments aren't
recognized internationally, so they have no trade or anything else
that sustains an economy, so enter piracy as an economic alternative.
Speaker 4 (18:40):
So they do have that range then to travel all
the way up into the Red Sea.
Speaker 11 (18:45):
They have been attacked from Somali pirates up to four
hundred nautical miles off into the Indian Ocean off the
coast of Somalia. They have significant range, usually because they
usually use ocean going fishing vessels as motherships to then
launch boarding skiffs to board ships. They will kind of
(19:05):
then have ladders with hooks that they'll attached to the
side of the cargo vessel and climb up with their
assault rifles to take control of it, take control of
a ship, and quite frequently they'll fire rocket propelled grenades
from these boarding skiffs at the cargo vessels in an
attempt to get them to surrender before boarding.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Well, and I read somewhere that they're mainly ex fishermen.
Is that right because they're fishing was ruined or is
that just like an over myth.
Speaker 11 (19:32):
Originally there was some veracity to that because with the
entire lack of government in Somalia, what you had is
an inability to enforce fishing rights licensing, so a lot
of foreign fishing fleets were coming in and effectively poaching
Somali in the Somali Exclusive Economic Zone of what would
(19:53):
be Somali fish stocks. So you did have that element
going on when kind of we started seeing the rise
of Somali piracy in two thousand and seven, but mostly
that's kind of abated as a reason, and it became
very swiftly an organized crime organization rather than rogue former fishermen.
Speaker 4 (20:16):
Right, excellent in terms of heists, if you like, I
would consider that the slides are fairly exotic thing to
steal as opposed to weapons and things for resale. Have
you heard of any other kind of exotic heists in
that region?
Speaker 11 (20:35):
There was one, I can't remember the exact incident. A
cargo vessel that was actually transporting a whole bunch of
Russian military equipment that was being sold by Russia elsewhere
got hijacked and held hostage for ransom by Somali pirates,
and when the ransom finally got negotiated and paid, all
(20:55):
of the armaments and military equipment was still on board
the ship. They didn't take it because it would have
been bad for business. So if they're taking a water slide.
It's either because they wanted to install it to use
or they had a market for it.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
A market for the water slide. That's fascinating.
Speaker 4 (21:14):
There's no chance of finding these people, but what would
happen to them if it was piracy.
Speaker 11 (21:22):
When you have people caught for piracy, what you first
then need to find is is there a nation state
that's willing to prosecute them for piracy? Because under the
Law of the Sea Convention, everyone has jurisdiction over piracy,
so anyone can engage in prosecution, which does lead us
to the situation where we have some pretty wild situations
(21:45):
with piracy prosecutions. A lot of my work was on
how do we prosecute pirates? And realistically, ninety eight percent
of pirates who are captured are released without charge because
there's no capacity to actually engage in prosecution. And most
states see no point or purpose in prosecuting the at
(22:07):
sea pirates because they're not the ones in charge, So
most states will only prosecute the people in charge, which
does lead us to the hilarious situation of the prosecution
in Belgian of Afwani Senior. So Afwani Senior was a
Somali organized crime group leader ran a piracy syndicate and
(22:31):
engaged in a number of different hijackings and ransoms and
what have you, and hostage takings that so happened to
be one of them was a Belgian ship. Eventually he said, no, look,
I've given up piracy. Piracy is wrong. I'm now going
to reinvest all my profits of piracy and community building
within Somalia, etc. And so then the Belgian Ministry of
(22:55):
Justice sent pretended to be a Belgian film industry rep
and invited him to Belgium to consult on a documentary
about Somali piracy, which he then for some reason accepted
the invitation and flew to Belgium, where he was promptly
arrested for hostage taking of this Belgian ship. What had
(23:19):
Earth possessed him to think that that was a legitimate invitation,
I'll never know. And we've also had similar ones where
a pirate negotiator was invited to the US under the
guise of attending an education conference and was then arrested
for piracy as well. So you see a few weird
ones like that come up around piracy prosecutions where they
(23:42):
finally get enough evidence to prosecute one of the people
in charge and concoct these wild schemes to get them
out of Somalia into a jurisdiction where they can arrest them.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
That's so interesting, isn't it. Tams and Page, who's like
an expert in this area.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
And from taking universe, but based on camera.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
Incredible and community building. That says to me, water slide?
So was it piracy or just common theft?
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Brad? I think it's got to be twelve miles out.
Speaker 4 (24:11):
You know, you can be kind of sailing in and
out of international waters and all of a sudden it's
just last weeking.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Now it's piracy, last wening piracy.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
Do they have a compass to work that out. We
don't want to be pirates, would rather be thieves. And
I do question, Like she said that the Somali pirates
would know what a water slide is. I don't know
if they would, you reckon, they'd look at it and go,
we could use this for irrigation or something.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Well, look, I don't know. You can you can buy
a lamp at Ikea and look at it in the
box and you think, no way is that lamp? Yes,
no way in the world is that lamp. You wouldn't
look at it, you just I reckon. You think there's weapons.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
Well, so you look at the fiberglass bits and the
metal and go, what what is this now?
Speaker 4 (24:52):
Well you could you know, even if you could picture
it in your mind, you go, you could launch like
a big rock down here.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Turning into a rock launcher. Not a rocket launcher, No
rock launcher. Well that's the end of the episode. And
so basically we're leaving you with stuff's being stolen. What's
going to happen is Mound and Eyes are going to
get their water slide. You'll find out next episode.
Speaker 7 (25:13):
Than you are right, the goalpost just kept getting further
and further away.
Speaker 10 (25:18):
Two big trucks arrived with these containers on the back.
Speaker 7 (25:21):
When I got in there, it's pitch black. You can't
see anything.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Slippery Slope a true crime podcast about Mount iSER and
the missing water Slide with Dave O'Neill and Bradoaks.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
Slippery Slope is written and hosted by Dave O'Neill and Bradoaks.
Original music created by Itinerant Productions. Cheer their website. There's
some great stuff there ww dot Itinerantproduction dot com. Editing
by Courtney Carthy, published by Neeli Media. Thank you for
all the guests involved in the making of Slippery Slope,
particularly the people of Mount Isa. For information, to check
(26:05):
out the episode notes or at nearly dot com. Dot you,
and thanks again to the people of Mountier.
Slippery Slope, a true crime podcast about Mount Io and
the Missing water Slide with Dave O'Neill and Brad Oaks.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hello, it's Dave O'Neill and Bradford os and.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
It's episode three of our podcast, Slippery Slope. Now let's
get you one up to speak. They're just tuned in
Mount Eyes. Are wanted the water slide. They got it
made in Turkey and at the end of the last episode,
what happened Bradford.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Well, the slide didn't turn up.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
No.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
No, it's a pretty big thing to go missing, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Yes, So it's on a ship. It's on its way
through the Sewer's Canal and there's some kind of pirate incident.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
Just for geography, Yes, it's Sewers Canal. Then it becomes
the Red Sea and then I believe it goes into
the Gulf of Oman, Yeah, and then into the Indian
Ocean and on.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
The other side it's the Mediterranean.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
And Mediterranean exactly.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
If you're coming from Turkey, you're coming through the Red
Sea into the Sewers Canal into the Mediterraneans.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Correct, it's a shortcut. It's a shortcut so that you
have to go all the way around down past All Africa.
I think it's quite a devilish as well to.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Go past and South Africa's on the bottom, and then
you've got to go up and it's another week or
two weeks or something. Yeah, well, let's get a bit
more information from Mark Miller, the project manager.
Speaker 5 (01:29):
Turkey's I suppose that's where the one of the main
manufacturers for the water slides are and cost of fishient
time efficient's questionable, but definitely cost efficient. So originally it
was a sixteen week procurement lead time which turned into
I think just over twenty four weeks up.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
What were the delays? There were rumors of pirate.
Speaker 5 (01:53):
The pirate rumors are pretty much true. There was. There
was a bit of an issue the Sew's Canal where
one of the continents got herld up and pirates seemed
to take a bit of a lake into the slides
and off off that went.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Where did it go? Maybe?
Speaker 5 (02:13):
Yeah, the pirates love slides. Maybe they've got their own
little water parks somewhere. Pirates of the Caribbean, you know,
they love it.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
So what did it go missing? Or did you find it?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Or they went missing?
Speaker 5 (02:24):
So they then to re manufacture and we send out
more doc in hence the heavy delay to the project.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
The original water slide actually went.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Missing parts, parts of it in parts.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Was this in the Sewer's Canal after the Sewers Canals?
Speaker 5 (02:39):
I believe it's in the siouxse Canal.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Well, that's interesting he believes it happened in the Sewers Canal.
But what is the history of the Sewers Canal.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
I think the French started to build it.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
I remember seeing photos of it being dug out by shovels.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
In seventeen ninety eight, Napoleon tried to find the remnants
of an ancient waterway. Oh, which just started this conversation
about this was canw A bit like the trains of
an Olburne Airport gets talked about a lot.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yeah, people get their photo taken, but nothing much happens.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
I remember when it was built because of the Crown.
I saw it in the Crown. NASA controlled it.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
It opened in under French control in eighteen sixty nine, right,
I think people kind of squabble over it for years,
but then NASA, the Egyptian president.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Well, I can read this here.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
In nineteen fifty one, Egypt repudiated the nineteen thirty six
Treaty with Great Britain. Britain had to remove their troops
nineteen fifty six. NASA responded by nationalizing the canal on
twenty sixth July nineteen fifty six.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
There was a bit of a hooha about that because
that's in the crown, so NASA president of Egypt. Yeah,
he was one that controlled it.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
In the end, it became an enormous source of revenue
for them because how much does.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
It go through? I think it's six hundred grand, isn't
it for a ship? Six hundred grand?
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Yeah, that's there's your city link, as you're told.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
But importantly it's a US dollars as a great source
of US dollars. Everybody has to pay and use of dollars,
which leads me to think that it's gold mine and
for Egypt.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Yeah, and it's not that white. I know, it's not
that wide, so it would be easy to attack in it,
but it'd be hard to get out anyway. We need
a bit more information about the actual attack, like what
happened was eating stolen. Let's go to Daniel from Simplex,
who was involved in making the slide and delivering the slide.
Speaker 6 (04:24):
It goes into production and yeah, it all comes in
forty four containers with the steel work and all the
bolts like a package sort of kit, and with drawings.
It don't make sense. And then you try and put
it all together over here.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Now, what happened with the Mountay as a water slide.
Speaker 6 (04:37):
It's a little bit hard to get an extension of
time when you approach the council and say pirates were.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Involved, right, so pirates were involved.
Speaker 6 (04:46):
Pirates were involved. I think the pirates actually boarded the ship.
I don't know if it was Jack Sparrow or not.
That's unconfirmed.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Okay, so pirates were definitely involved. I don't really understand
how they got actually got the stuff, because when we
think of containers on a ship, they're closed off, you know,
the big classic metal containers that we see on trucks,
on trains, et cetera. But apparently these were something called
I think open top containers. Well, let Daniel explain.
Speaker 6 (05:14):
The steel work comes with no lids. They're open top containers.
All the steel works they loaded in from the top.
When it turns up the site, you unloaded with a
crane or a front and rip it out from the
top at all fiberglasses in what we call high kids,
which are a little bit higher than normal containers, and
they pack all the fiberglass pieces in sections like that.
It's actually quite a skillful process to pack a forty
(05:36):
foot container tightly with fiberglass. If customs end up getting
it and rip it all out, they can never get
it back in, which is normally one of our issues
we can have.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Right So, now understand that the containers are open, you
can actually get in there and have a look and
get stuff out. Interesting that both the guys have mentioned
Jack Sparrow a.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Bit of sadness for me.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
There's so many other pirates, I know, you know, why
would Jack Sparrow be.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Captain Kid. You've got black Beard captain more than you've
got Captain Pugwash captain. I don't know if his I
don't think he was. I think it was. I think
it was Jack Sparrow.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
He's everyone mentions Jack Sparrow, Captain Hook, Captain Hook from
just you know, and don't reckon that story was just
made up as they went along.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
How he lose his hand on crocodile? Come on, mate, Yes,
he's got the ball.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Well, because we all think of pirates are something cute,
a parrot on their shoulder, a wooden leg, But of
course these are like Somali pirates.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
I have a pirate joke. Well, everybody knows the joke.
What's the pirate's favorite leader? Well, no, in fact, it's
the seas all.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Right, But have you seen that Tom Hanks movie Mister
Roberts where he's it's it's just it's like he's on
a big cargo ship and Somali pirates board and capture
the vessel. So it's those kinds of pirates. Yeah, I
believe it's not the cute pirates.
Speaker 4 (06:59):
Not a few pirates, and it's not the people who
back in the nineties were.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Just copying videos. They were pirates.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Oh yes, video pirates.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
The number one conserned the FBI at one stage.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Yeah, it's a crime.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Well, you know, Fast and Furious was about copying DVDs.
The first movie was about DVD theft.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
I had no idea. Yeah, I've never seen any of them.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Are there any other mentions of Jack Sparrow from anyone
on this podcast. Let's go to Cogo, the deputy mayor
of Mount iSER.
Speaker 7 (07:28):
Yeah, someone probably in Somalia has got half a slide,
so I don't know what they're doing with it. And
when they said pirates, I'm like, oh, Jack Sparrow, So
Jack Sparrot's the only pirate I'd like to meet.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
There we go another. Jack Sparrow mentioned you've got to
imagine though, so the pirates of the board of the ship,
they've got part of the water slide or something's happening.
But what's happening in Mount iSER. I mean, that's a
long way from the Sewers Canal, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
It's a long way from any water. It really does.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Yeah, exactly. Here's Danny l the former mayor.
Speaker 8 (07:59):
So when they said to me that the ship had
been taken over by pirates, and to me, it was
like the dogs ate my homework. You know, they haven't
ordered it. They're delaying and on purpose, and they're just
trying to get it after the elections. So it's not
something I could point and say to see, look what I've.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Done, you know, Yeah, Daniel the former me, well, I
suppose with local politics, people could be thinking this is
just something's made up, pirates in the Sewers Canal.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
You're like, what it sounds like something Buiolchie Peterson would
have said in the seventies or eighties.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
You know, well, you know.
Speaker 9 (08:34):
Pirates, Jack, get out, bloody Jacks Barro or Bob Catter
would say, So let's cross the Shae Donovan, she actually
runs the aquatic center of the pull Man is where
the water slide is meant to be, So she's waiting
for the water slide.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
This is what she had to say when she heard
about the pirates.
Speaker 10 (08:50):
So I wasn't too sure what was going on because Mark,
the project manager, is a bit of a joker and
if there's something delayed in a contractor might be a
day late delivering something, he'll make a bit of a
joke about it. So I didn't really believe what he
was telling us. I thought it was just some gimmick
he was coming up with something. But then when we
found out for real it was a pirate attack on
(09:13):
the ship that was carrying the containers, Yeah, it was
a little bit like, oh, okay, of course this has
happened to us in Mount Eysa. What else would happen?
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Shay, who runs a pool in man eyes hats off
to her. She didn't mention Jack Sparrow When talking about pirates,
she's been the first not to mention Jack Sparrow. So okay,
there seems to be disagreement about where the attack actually happened.
Let's got to Mark Miller, the project manager.
Speaker 5 (09:39):
I believe it's in the Sioux's Canal, and then the
rest of it got diversed. So then the diversion that
didn't have to go run.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
The coast of Africa.
Speaker 5 (09:47):
Then, but the pirates attacked in the Siouxs Canal.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Then of course that takes a lot longer to go
around the bottom of Africa.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
Of course, of course, And he's the twenty four week delay.
Speaker 6 (09:57):
No, I wasn't in the canal. Yeah, it was in
the ocean bits around there. Have you ever seen that
Tom Hanks movie where he's at the end he's going
like oh yeah, Like yeah, I'm pretty sure it was
those type of guys.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
No, I don't really know.
Speaker 6 (10:10):
We've had a bit of pirate activity, but none that
have ever boarded the actual ship. Last year especially, there
was constant pirate doos and like I said, that's hard
to get it over along with the client pirates again,
sorry you water slide I can installed in time.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
But right, So this seems to be a bit of disagreement.
That's Daniel there from Swimplex about where the attack actually happened.
What's your thinking, Bradford. You've become an expert on sewers
Canal via the internet piracy.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Well also I tracked down expert.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
This is what we need. We need a piracy expert.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
Yeah, but you know, look, I was dubious in the
first place that anything would take part in a sewers canal,
just because of how much the Egyptian government would guard it.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
And it's so narrow.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Least, yeah, yeah, narrow.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
Yeah, And as we'll discover, there's also a definition of
piracy that's going to come into play.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Really, and there's a HOOTI rebels.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Well there's HOOTI rebels.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
And then so when people say Somali pirates, I looked
on the map and Somalia was like about well two
and a half thousand kilometers from the sewers Canal.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
So that's a long way to go to work.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
I mean, if you were a pirate, I mean it's
like sort of being in the nightclub or being outside
there's people lining up for the sewers Canal. Right, yeah,
now you could it's like lining up for a nightclub.
You wouldn't go into the nightclub, you'd I don't want
to talk about attacking people, but if you were going
to do something, surely you do it outside. Sure you
do it in the bit before the Sewers Canal.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
Well, it depends if they're going the way they were coming.
Don't coming from Turkey. So they're coming down.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Yeah, right, so they're coming down.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
I think you turn left at Israel or something like that,
and then you come to the Sewers Canal and get
in the canal.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Then you go into I think the Red Sea, and
then like I said, I think it's the Gulf.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
I'm learning that I don't know anything about geography.
Speaker 4 (11:56):
And then well, because what you've got coming from Turkey's
basically that's the.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
End of Europe.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
Yes, to me, it was dubius. Although we should cut
to the expert. Yes, find out a bit about piracy.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Tamson Page is We'll let her introduce herself, but she's
an academic with many qualifications in this area.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Hello.
Speaker 11 (12:18):
So I'm doctor Tamson Philip A. Page. I am an
associate professor at Deacon Law School. I did my m
phil at A and U studying the application of piracy
law in Somali counter piracy operations. And I did that
while also working with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.
That about Somali piracy would have been in twenty twelve
(12:41):
and twenty thirteen. I've also got a PhD in International
security law, and I teach and research in international law
and legal ethics.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
That's impressive. That's impressive. Is there piracy in the sewers Canal?
Speaker 11 (12:56):
The question that becomes if it's piracy or something else,
because legally it actually wouldn't be piracy at a pure
legal level, which is really quite interesting in that regard
because of some quirks of jurisdiction.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Right, well, because of the sewers Canal.
Speaker 11 (13:13):
Yeah, because the sewers Canal forms essentially they're straight for
international navigation. Piracy by legal definition can only occur in
international waters or the high seeds legally refer.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
To it, right, And so I mean, but are there
Somali pirates active in the sewers Canal?
Speaker 11 (13:32):
Not? In the sewers They're active mostly through the Red
Sea and the Horn of Africa, so down kind of
at the point where you have the Red Sea going
out into the Indian Ocean through the Gulf of Aden
and all of those areas kind of with Somalia and
Yemen on either side of that exit from the Red Sea.
Speaker 4 (13:52):
So if they're avowed pirates of declared pirates, but then
they actually committed crime in what is in international waters,
what do you designate them as.
Speaker 11 (14:04):
Su as canal? My understanding is Egyptian territory. So essentially
they are just engaging in theft or larceny or whatever
under Egyptian law. Because they're committing it in Egyptian internal waters.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
It seemed unlikely because the Egyptians seem to police it
so well, there wouldn't be a lot of crime going
on there, you know of that overt nature.
Speaker 11 (14:29):
Well, I wouldn't expect so, but it is a major waterway,
as we all found out when the ever given ran
aground at all. Global trade stopped for a few weeks
while they dug it out. The designation of pirate versus
just theft is literally one of did it happen more
than twelve nautical miles from the coast of a state?
(14:52):
If yes, it's piracy, If no, it's just armed robbery.
At c right National Maritime Organation, when keeping statistics on
this treat them as the one set of crime. But
legally you're only a pirate if you're doing this on
the high seas. And there's a whole bunch of really
interesting international political reasons for that, But generally speaking, yeah,
(15:16):
if it's not happening on the high seas, you're not
doing piracy. You're just engaging in theft.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
So it's a bit of a champagne versus sparkling wine thing,
isn't it?
Speaker 11 (15:26):
It is? But the reasons for it are less because
the French are snotting and weird, and more because countries
like Philippines and Indonesia and things like that have vast
amounts of what we call archipelagic waters where they have
exclusive jurisdiction and they don't want Chinese and US militaries
(15:46):
just sending their navy patrolling through all of these waters
under the guise of counter piracy operations.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
And also in the Suits Canal recently there's been they're
not called pirates, are called rebels, the Hooti rebels, which
they seem to have a different aim than say, the
normal standard Somali pirate. Is that correct?
Speaker 11 (16:07):
I mean, I'm reluctant to call them rebels because actually
they control seventy five percent of the populations in Yemen,
so calling them rebels seems to be a denial of
the fact that they are just the government of Yemen. Functionally.
These days, they're engaging in attacks on merchant shipping, they
claim out of solidarity and part of actions against Israel's
(16:30):
activities in Gaza. However, they're attacking merchant shipping, which is
just either a war crime or a crime against humanity.
It's either it's unlawful, regardless of the reasons for doing it.
But again, the question about whether or not that's piracy
comes down to whether or not you accept that the
Hohothies are just the government of Yemen or if they
(16:51):
are an independent belligerent organization that doesn't have governmental powers.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
And they're not stealing stuff, are they? They just seemed
to get on boats and hold hostages and stuff.
Speaker 11 (17:03):
They're not really stealing stuff. That doesn't mean Somali pirates
didn't really steal much either. Somali pirates were generally taking
ships hostage and holding them for ransom and then releasing
them with all the cargo and crew after ransoms had
been paid. But the Huthi are often doing a lot
of attacks with drones and things like that and sinking
(17:26):
motion shipping as well as hostage taking, etc. Their goal
is not economic, whereas Somali pirates goal was purely economic.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
So with this case that we're looking into, people are
in disagree about where the actual attack happened, but they
do believe that the so called pirates boarded the ship
and stole stuff. But I'm pretty sure now that we
talked to you and other accounts that it was in
the Red Sea. So they all seem to think it
was Somali pirates. Why would they take bits of a
(17:56):
water slide? They wouldn't know what that was, surely, I.
Speaker 11 (17:58):
Don't know whether they know it was. I mean that said,
they'd probably be able to tell what a water slide
is in Somalia just as well as anywhere else. However,
it all comes down to economics. Like pirates are driven
by what can we sell or in the case of
hostage shaking, how can we make a profit to make
ends meet in an area that has been destroyed by
(18:22):
civil war since nineteen ninety two. But the northern regions
are fairly stable with autonomous governments, but those governments aren't
recognized internationally, so they have no trade or anything else
that sustains an economy, so enter piracy as an economic alternative.
Speaker 4 (18:40):
So they do have that range then to travel all
the way up into the Red Sea.
Speaker 11 (18:45):
They have been attacked from Somali pirates up to four
hundred nautical miles off into the Indian Ocean off the
coast of Somalia. They have significant range, usually because they
usually use ocean going fishing vessels as motherships to then
launch boarding skiffs to board ships. They will kind of
(19:05):
then have ladders with hooks that they'll attached to the
side of the cargo vessel and climb up with their
assault rifles to take control of it, take control of
a ship, and quite frequently they'll fire rocket propelled grenades
from these boarding skiffs at the cargo vessels in an
attempt to get them to surrender before boarding.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Well, and I read somewhere that they're mainly ex fishermen.
Is that right because they're fishing was ruined or is
that just like an over myth.
Speaker 11 (19:32):
Originally there was some veracity to that because with the
entire lack of government in Somalia, what you had is
an inability to enforce fishing rights licensing, so a lot
of foreign fishing fleets were coming in and effectively poaching
Somali in the Somali Exclusive Economic Zone of what would
(19:53):
be Somali fish stocks. So you did have that element
going on when kind of we started seeing the rise
of Somali piracy in two thousand and seven, but mostly
that's kind of abated as a reason, and it became
very swiftly an organized crime organization rather than rogue former fishermen.
Speaker 4 (20:16):
Right, excellent in terms of heists, if you like, I
would consider that the slides are fairly exotic thing to
steal as opposed to weapons and things for resale. Have
you heard of any other kind of exotic heists in
that region?
Speaker 11 (20:35):
There was one, I can't remember the exact incident. A
cargo vessel that was actually transporting a whole bunch of
Russian military equipment that was being sold by Russia elsewhere
got hijacked and held hostage for ransom by Somali pirates,
and when the ransom finally got negotiated and paid, all
(20:55):
of the armaments and military equipment was still on board
the ship. They didn't take it because it would have
been bad for business. So if they're taking a water slide.
It's either because they wanted to install it to use
or they had a market for it.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
A market for the water slide. That's fascinating.
Speaker 4 (21:14):
There's no chance of finding these people, but what would
happen to them if it was piracy.
Speaker 11 (21:22):
When you have people caught for piracy, what you first
then need to find is is there a nation state
that's willing to prosecute them for piracy? Because under the
Law of the Sea Convention, everyone has jurisdiction over piracy,
so anyone can engage in prosecution, which does lead us
to the situation where we have some pretty wild situations
(21:45):
with piracy prosecutions. A lot of my work was on
how do we prosecute pirates? And realistically, ninety eight percent
of pirates who are captured are released without charge because
there's no capacity to actually engage in prosecution. And most
states see no point or purpose in prosecuting the at
(22:07):
sea pirates because they're not the ones in charge, So
most states will only prosecute the people in charge, which
does lead us to the hilarious situation of the prosecution
in Belgian of Afwani Senior. So Afwani Senior was a
Somali organized crime group leader ran a piracy syndicate and
(22:31):
engaged in a number of different hijackings and ransoms and
what have you, and hostage takings that so happened to
be one of them was a Belgian ship. Eventually he said, no, look,
I've given up piracy. Piracy is wrong. I'm now going
to reinvest all my profits of piracy and community building
within Somalia, etc. And so then the Belgian Ministry of
(22:55):
Justice sent pretended to be a Belgian film industry rep
and invited him to Belgium to consult on a documentary
about Somali piracy, which he then for some reason accepted
the invitation and flew to Belgium, where he was promptly
arrested for hostage taking of this Belgian ship. What had
(23:19):
Earth possessed him to think that that was a legitimate invitation,
I'll never know. And we've also had similar ones where
a pirate negotiator was invited to the US under the
guise of attending an education conference and was then arrested
for piracy as well. So you see a few weird
ones like that come up around piracy prosecutions where they
(23:42):
finally get enough evidence to prosecute one of the people
in charge and concoct these wild schemes to get them
out of Somalia into a jurisdiction where they can arrest them.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
That's so interesting, isn't it. Tams and Page, who's like
an expert in this area.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
And from taking universe, but based on camera.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
Incredible and community building. That says to me, water slide?
So was it piracy or just common theft?
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Brad? I think it's got to be twelve miles out.
Speaker 4 (24:11):
You know, you can be kind of sailing in and
out of international waters and all of a sudden it's
just last weeking.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Now it's piracy, last wening piracy.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
Do they have a compass to work that out. We
don't want to be pirates, would rather be thieves. And
I do question, Like she said that the Somali pirates
would know what a water slide is. I don't know
if they would, you reckon, they'd look at it and go,
we could use this for irrigation or something.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Well, look, I don't know. You can you can buy
a lamp at Ikea and look at it in the
box and you think, no way is that lamp? Yes,
no way in the world is that lamp. You wouldn't
look at it, you just I reckon. You think there's weapons.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
Well, so you look at the fiberglass bits and the
metal and go, what what is this now?
Speaker 4 (24:52):
Well you could you know, even if you could picture
it in your mind, you go, you could launch like
a big rock down here.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Turning into a rock launcher. Not a rocket launcher, No
rock launcher. Well that's the end of the episode. And
so basically we're leaving you with stuff's being stolen. What's
going to happen is Mound and Eyes are going to
get their water slide. You'll find out next episode.
Speaker 7 (25:13):
Than you are right, the goalpost just kept getting further
and further away.
Speaker 10 (25:18):
Two big trucks arrived with these containers on the back.
Speaker 7 (25:21):
When I got in there, it's pitch black. You can't
see anything.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Slippery Slope a true crime podcast about Mount iSER and
the missing water Slide with Dave O'Neill and Bradoaks.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
Slippery Slope is written and hosted by Dave O'Neill and Bradoaks.
Original music created by Itinerant Productions. Cheer their website. There's
some great stuff there ww dot Itinerantproduction dot com. Editing
by Courtney Carthy, published by Neeli Media. Thank you for
all the guests involved in the making of Slippery Slope,
particularly the people of Mount Isa. For information, to check
(26:05):
out the episode notes or at nearly dot com. Dot you,
and thanks again to the people of Mountier.
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