Pirate kingpin held in Hollywood-style sting

An alleged pirate kingpin fell into a trap and was arrested after getting lured from Somalia to Belgium in a Hollywood-style sting to work on a fake documentary about crime on the high seas.

As Mohamed Abdi Hassan, known as "one of the most notorious and influential pirate leaders" arrived in Brussels Saturday, he expected to sign a lucrative contract to be an expert advisor on a documentary, the Daily Mail reported.

But Hassan would have never thought that he and an alleged accomplice known as Tiiceey were all set to be arrested at the airport. Both were immediately jailed, the report added.

Abdi Hassan was charged with hijacking the Belgian dredger ship Pompei and kidnapping its crew of nine in 2009 and participating in a criminal organisation, said federal prosecutor Johan Delmulle.

A UN report last year had described Abdi Hassan "one of the most notorious and influential leaders" of a major Somali pirate organisation that roamed the seas hijacking ships for ransom.

"(He's) one of the most important and infamous kingpin pirate leaders, responsible for the hijacking of dozens of commercial vessels from 2008 to 2013," the prosecutor added.