Emilio Changco

Emilio Changco was a pirate gang leader based out of Manila Bay in the Philippines. He specialized in piracy-for-order, where a client hires the Changco Gang to seize the ship, remove the clients cargo, and then sell the ship. Changco was eventually captured and imprisoned by Philippine authorities. In 1992 he was killed by law-enforcement agents under circumstances which have been characterised as suspicious. They specialized in targeted piracy where a client would pay $US 300,000 and then tell the gang which ship was to be targeted . The ship would be raided by the gang and then the ship, its crew confined, would be sailed to an out of the way port all the while transmitting to its owners that it was stricken by mechanical difficulties and confined to port. In at least one instance, members of Changco's gang would stowaway on the ship before it set sail and then assist other pirates in boarding once the ship set sail. After the seizure, either in port or at sea, the cargo would be transferred to another ship and then the crew would be unloaded and told not to report the incident for a few days. This allowed the Changco gang to paint over the ship making it a "phantom-ship" that could be used for other tasks such as smuggling goods or human smuggling.

Changco was well known throughout the region and companies would often hire him to steal back their cargoes. In 1992, while a prisoner, Changco was shot and killed during what authorities stated was an attempt to escape from jail. The circumstances surrounding his death are suspicious as at the time of his death he could barely walk and needed a cane. In his book, The Brutal Seas: Organised Crime at Work, author Douglas Stewart discusses how Changco's death was more likely an effort to silence him than due to a legitimate escape attempt.