Israeli Revealed as owner of South Sudan bound weapons ship

2008-10-08 14:28:21 - Registration documents gathered by BBC included the confirmation that the ship hijacked by Somalia pirates belonged to a Jewish investor residing in the self proclaimed state of Israel, and not a Ukrainian ship.

More information reveal the reported Ukrainian owner company by the name of Tomax Team as nothing but a mere operator based in the Ukraine, employing crews from Ukraine and Latvia. The crisis surrounding the destination of its cargo were further resolved when transportation codes with "GOSS" (an acronym for Government of South Sudan) were found amongst the documentations to solve the deepening mystery.

The Israel based owner Vadim Alperin was further investigated to have acquired this ship from a Russian state auction during the era of Boris Yeltsin. The ship was refurbished and later conveniently registered to fly the Belize flag. Other ships by the same owner where found to be operating as casinos including one based in the Gulf to entertain rich Arab clients.

Vadim Alperin was once quoted to be a "Mossad brother" running a number of clandestine front companies including one Kenyan Meat export company enjoying "good trade" with middle eastern countries covertly used for gathering intelligence from countries such as Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

Kenya maintains weapons were legally purchased by its army, although its own government is now mired in a web of embarrassments as weapons procurement of this size has not been declared despite being a member of United Nations weapons transparency programme UNROCA.

For many years, the Khartoum based Sudan government accused Israel of supplying arms and providing training to South Sudan rebels. Kenya is now proofed to be providing the logistical support for arms shipment to South Sudan, a role similar to Chad's support given to Darfur rebels which has caused the two countries to be in a state of war against each other.

Israel once supplied illicit weapons to South Sudan from within Ethiopia's territory, but had lost influence since the Eritrean independence. As relations between Eritrea and Ethiopia had soured, it became impossible to continue this route and sought other alternative routes to get to its Uganda weapons storage for South Sudan militias through Kenyan territories.

It is extremely rare for ships to be registered to indivitual investors such as Mr Alperin.