{"id":46992,"date":"2025-11-14T21:50:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T21:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/46992\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T21:50:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T21:50:15","slug":"jacksonville-companys-cargo-barge-boarded-by-looters-off-coast-of-the-bahamas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/46992\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacksonville company\u2019s cargo barge boarded by \u2018looters\u2019 off coast of the Bahamas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/b44099e3cea059f62282a06400f7dc35.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Pirates in the Caribbean, or at least an apparent act of piracy that stretched on for two days, seems to have been resolved.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">New photos obtained by Action News Jax show Bahamian police aboard a cargo barge that was taken over by roughly 50 people off the coast of the Bahamas on its way from Jacksonville to Puerto Rico, according to the vessel\u2019s owner.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.actionnewsjax.com\/live-breaking\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:&gt;&gt;&gt; STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE &lt;&lt;&lt;;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">&gt;&gt;&gt; STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE &lt;&lt;&lt;<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Action News Jax obtained video showing several small vessels alongside the Brooklyn Bridge cargo barge about three miles off the coast of the Bahamas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The video, Action News Jax is told, was shot by the suspected robbers and looters and sent to the vessel\u2019s owner, Trailer Bridge, as proof of the ongoing incident.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cModern-day piracy looks very different than it did back in the day. As you pointed out, they\u2019re smaller, faster boats,\u201d said maritime attorney Adam Deitz<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The act of potential piracy in the Caribbean is an incredibly rare sight, according to Dietz.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">More photos obtained by Action News Jax on Friday, taken aboard the barge, show emptied out cargo containers once full of household supplies and food.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cA large commercial ship being commandeered by local pirates in the Caribbean is very unusual,\u201d said Deitz.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Trailer Bridge told Action News Jax its vessel was boarded on Thursday after the tug boat pulling the barge experienced a tow wire failure that grounded the barge two days prior.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">[DOWNLOAD: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.actionnewsjax.com\/mobile-apps\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The company contacted the US Navy, Coast Guard, and local police, but Bahamian officials initially told the company they would not engage, \u201cbecause they feared possible violence\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">It\u2019s unclear based on photos and videos obtained by Action News Jax whether the suspected robbers and looters are armed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">But Deitz said, generally, acts of piracy are not carried out with the intent of physically harming crew members.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cIt\u2019s based in money, not necessarily violence for the sake of violence, but they do resolve badly sometimes,\u201d said Deitz.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Another photo Action News Jax obtained Friday showed the barge boarded by Bahamian police, and the smaller boats that once surrounded it are nowhere to be seen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Deitz said oftentimes piracy is a symptom of destabilization within a country, so he hopes this is a one-off occurrence and not the start of a larger trend.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The shipping lane between JAXPORT and the Bahamas is a critical lifeline to Puerto Rico, making the stakes incredibly high.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cThere are things that ships can do in the meantime to still use the area while they\u2019re figuring it out, but this is early. I guess we\u2019ll see,\u201d said Deitz.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Action News Jax reached out to the US Coast Guard and asked whether it was involved in the response and what that response may have looked like.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">We\u2019re waiting to hear back.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">[SIGN UP: <a href=\"https:\/\/membercenter.actionnewsjax.com\/newsletters\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.actionnewsjax.com\/mobile-apps\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Click here;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.actionnewsjax.com\/mobile-apps\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:click here;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.actionnewsjax.com\/video\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:click here;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pirates in the Caribbean, or at least an apparent act of piracy that stretched on for two days,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[30622,30456,30623,116,118,117,23089,30621],"class_list":{"0":"post-46992","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-adam-deitz","9":"tag-barge","10":"tag-cargo-containers","11":"tag-jacksonville","12":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","13":"tag-jacksonville-news","14":"tag-the-bahamas","15":"tag-trailer-bridge"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}