Het verhaal is geen hoax (broodjeaapverhaal). Het gaat alleen niet om piraterij maar om drugssmokkel. Op FB staat de vertaling van het Spaanse verhaal:
A closer analysis has reviewed the previous interpretation and that the incident was maybe/probably not pirates but GOMAS of the drug trafficking scene.
While it's only a interpretation, make sense that the ribs are only forcing the boats the leave the area.
English translation
ANALYSIS OF THE MOROCCAN "PIRATE ATTACK" ON A GERMAN CATAMARAN IN THE GULF OF CADIZ
The prestigious German nautical magazine Yacht in its online version reported, on September 21 of this year, the incident on a luxury catamaran of the Lagoon 42 model, called Marianne, which had apparently been attacked last September 14 between Huelva and Cadiz by pirates sailing in RHIBs equipped with powerful engines
The captain of the Marianne had left the port of Faro in Portugal and was heading towards the Strait of Gibraltar for Croatia when he noticed two RHIBs were circling his position. When he noticed them approaching, he accelerated the catamaran to flee the area while his wife radioed for help on the emergency channel via UHF.
According to the news in the magazine Yacht.de, the crew of the Marianne was able to repel the attack thanks to a providential wave that prevented the pirates from boarding the catamaran while they were fleeing from the RHIBs. A few moments later, an Argos helicopter from the Customs Surveillance Service (SVA) arrived and maneuvered over the alleged pirate ships to scare them, managing to expel them from Spanish waters and fleeing at great speed towards the coast of Morocco.
After this striking event, the Marianne set sail for Cadiz, where her crew was interviewed by the Spanish police to gather as much information as possible. According to the German sailors, the Spanish police took the matter very seriously. They also thanked the very fast and professional performance of the Customs Surveillance Service helicopter, which reached the position where the events were taking place very quickly, making them feel safe. The captain of the catamaran has also recommended, through the nautical magazine Yacht.de, to always sail close to the Spanish coast to avoid this type of situation in the open sea.
THE RETURN OF THE BARBARY PIRATES TO THE STRAIT?
This event can remind us of the kidnappings and assaults that Somali pirates carry out in the Horn of Africa and which in its day motivated the European Union to create Operation Atalanta to protect the freedom and security of maritime traffic in the Indian Ocean, only this time, instead of having happened in a remote region, it has happened in European waters. This is why this event should have had greater media coverage in the mainstream media. However, these events have only been published in a specialized yachting magazine in Germany, so what happened?
After investigating a little about this event and contacting our friends in the State Security Forces, we have a more concrete and exact vision of what happened with the alleged attack on the Marianne catamaran in Andalusian waters.
It seems that the German boat moved away from the coast to open in the sea and to embark in the Strait of Gibraltar, with the coincidence that it entered in a zone where there were two RHIBs boats dedicated to the drug trafficking (commonly known as "gomas") that would be around the place in wait of some fishing ship, A merchant ship, sailboat or yacht that would act as a wet nurse or transport a possible drug shipment, which would later transfer the alleged cargo to these RHIBs so that they could then take it to some discreet place on the Spanish coast, where it would be disembarked for further distribution and sale.
This version of the narcolanchas seems the most plausible, as the Marianne Germans claimed that at no time did they see the alleged attackers carrying firearms with them or show them at any time, which, for example, Somali pirates ostensibly do as a method of intimidation.
Drug trafficking in the Strait of Gibraltar area is a business as illegal as it is lucrative, where the protagonists seek to make a profit quickly and easily, without making life more difficult for themselves, so it is unlikely that they will engage in piracy now. Surely the sailors of the Marianne catamaran crossed paths with those who were about to carry out a drug trafficking operation at sea and what they did was to scare them to leave the place and throw out possible witnesses, everything else being a set of circumstances.
About the possible irruption of piracy as a criminal phenomenon in the area of the Strait is very unlikely, since both Morocco and Spain and Gibraltar care to the maximum tourist and nautical activity for the economic benefit and prestige that brings to coastal cities with ports and marinas, many of them linked to the international luxury markets and the Jet Set of famous people.
Furthermore, in the area of the Strait there is a great interest on the part of the Moroccan, Gibraltarian and Spanish authorities