The Secret Lives of High Seas Pirates

[VIDEO - HOT DOCS] The Mark sits down with the producers of The Pirate Tapes.

If they don't get caught, they can make off with millions of dollars in cargo. Even when they do get caught, these machine-gun-wielding marauders are often set free to continue trolling the lawless seas off the coast of Somalia.

The secret lives of Somali pirates are mostly unknown. When filmmakers Roger Singh and Andrew Moniz met Mohamed Ashareh, they knew they had a chance to document the unseen injustices off the Horn of Africa.

Ashareh, a Somali-Canadian, had recently been to Somalia with the goal of filming this underworld. Family connections helped him get on board with the pirates, and when he showed Singh and Moniz the footage, they realized Ashareh had unprecedented access to this untold story.

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Photo courtesy of Reuters.