In the first eight months of 2013, criminal gangs performed 19 attacks on ships in the Gulf of Guinea off the coast of West Africa. In 2012, the number of attacks against product and chemical tankers from the international fleet amounted to a total of 25, according to new report from security analysts Risk Intelligence, which concludes that various pirate networks in the region are targeting the tankers' cargos, pointing out that this is a fairly new but highly lucrative criminal activity in the region.