Secret cargo theory in hunt for missing Arctic Sea

Was the Arctic Sea, the Russian-crewed 4,000-tonne cargo ship that disappeared on July 29, carrying a secret cargo? It's a theory gaining ground as observers seek an answer to the mystery of the missing vessel which, despite a search mounted in the Atlantic by the Russian navy, has still not been found.

The Arctic Sea was on a journey from the Finnish port of Pietarsaar to Bejaia on the Mediterranean coast of Algeria, where it was due to dock on August 4. It had passed through the English Channel and was reckoned to be off the coast of France when it was least heard from.

The most logical explanations for its disappearance are that it ran into trouble and sank, or that it was hijacked. But if it sank, its £1m cargo of timber would have risen to the surface, and there have been no sightings. If it was hijacked, why has no demand been received?

"The only sensible answer is that the vessel was loaded secretly with something we don't know anything about," Mikhail Voitenko, editor of the Russian maritime bulletin Sovfracht told the Russia Today news channel.

"We have to remember that before loading in Finland the vessel stayed for two weeks in a shipyard in Kaliningrad (above). I'm sure it cannot be drugs or illegal criminal cargo. I think it is something much more expensive and dangerous."

Another puzzle that still has no explanation is the report from the Arctic Sea, received on July 24, four days before it was last heard from, that a gang of 10 men pretending to be anti-drugs police boarded the vessel in Swedish waters. According to Interpol, the men reportedly stayed aboard the Arctic Sea for 12 hours before leaving in a high-speed inflatable boat.

As Russian navy ships and submarines search for the Arctic Sea, Nikolay Karpenkov, director of Solchart Arkhanglesk, the vessel's operating company, dismissed as "rubbish" the notion of a secret cargo. "The craft was checked by customs officers as it left Kaliningrad after a refit and with the timber cargo in Finland and nothing out of the ordinary was found," he said. ·