The unlucky bastard who they target next, obviously.
These pirates are able to remain at large based on three things.
Firstly, the lawlessness of the region in which they operate.
Secondly, when they have not captured anything they operate from speedboats, and with very basic weaponry (sometimes just knives). They are consequently too insignificant and anonymous to attract attention and/or for it to be provable that they are pirates at all. They don’t wear eyepatches, have parrots on their shoulder or say “aaargh” a lot.
Thirdly, after the pirates attack they have valuable cargo and a vessel and hostages and they use this as a shield. Sure, any respectable military can probably watch their every move on satellite (you can’t hide a sizeable ship these days) and could take the pirates out at the flick of a switch, but only by destroying/killing what they are trying to protect.
The pirates cannot use the tanks for piracy. If they did, they might as well put a big sign on themselves saying “I am a pirate, shoot me” and they’d be smoking flotsam shortly afterward.
The recent attacks are notable precisely because they have been by pirates working further out and (so it is said) from motherships. This is much more big league than is traditional and is no doubt a reflection of being cashed up from recent ransomes. This is not sustainable. History shows that piracy is vulnerable to law enforcement action once it gets bold enough to become obvious. There are going to be some dead pirates shortly and the “industry” will contract back to the usual level of noise.
The plot thickens:
And now, there may have been infighting among the pirates over what to do with the cargo, resulting in a couple of dead bad guys.
What I’m curious about is what Russia’s stake in this is, why they want to get involved. Do they have something to loose in particular from these weapons getting to Africa, or are they just trying to tweak the US’s nose since we’re big on operating in that part of the world?
I suppose they could be just out for the greater humanitarian good of ending piracy and keeping weapons out of terrorist hands, but I’m a cynic on some things.
The word you are looking for is “ruler”. Did you ever work in set design for a British rock band?
It seems like the solution to the problem is right there. All we need now is a suitable SEAL/RM Commando/Spetsnaz force.
The problem with your solution is also right there: the 25 crew. This is going to end very badly for the pirates, but I just hope it doesn’t end very badly for the crew.