'Al Capone' strategy to defeat piracy Piracy became Somalia's biggest industry as warlords moved off shore to intercept oil tankers and container ships that were the ransomed for as much as £7 million a ship. Taking into account higher insurance premiums and other costs to shipping firms, the overall economic cost to the world economy inflicting by Somalia piracy was estimated as $12 billion (£7.5 billion) in 2010 alone. Figures released by the International Maritime Organisation show a dramatic drop in piracy this year. It catalogued just 70 incidents in the first nine months, a 75 per cent fall off from the same period in 2011 and a three year low. Mr Kelly said that the combination of increased patrolling by navies from the US, Europe and Asia as well as the employment of armed guards on ships was a turning point in the battle against piracy. "There was a lot of reticence in a lot of places about using these crews but people learned through experience that this was a critically important factor in reducing the number of instances," Mr Kelly said. Its hard enough to climb up the side of a ship with a Kalashnikov on your back but it's harder when you have some someone shooting down at you. Four fifths of container ships and tankers now carry armed guards, leaving pirates with fewer targets to go after. "Pirates break off attack and look for softer targets," he said. We estimate 80 per cent of ships are using private security. We'd like it to be 100 per cent. America is also mounting a diplomatic campaign to share the burden of imprisoned pirates with countries that dominate the registry of shipping. Countries such as Panama and the Bahamas are being asked to prosecute and imprison pirates caught on their vessels. About 1,000 pirates have been imprisoned in 20 nations as a result of the crackdown on the trade. An international conference on Somalia in London in January backed a British-financed initiative to stage trials of pirates in the Seychelles. Kenyan courts have also sentenced hundreds of pirates to prison. In the long run, foreign donors plan to build prisons run by the fledging government of Somalia to house the country's pirates.