Maybe everyone is looking at this from the wrong perspective.
What if the drug runners viewed the Navy sailing vessel as an easy target against the Ecuadorian Navy's sail training, thinking it may have little more than green young recruits in training? What better way to boost their bravado and prove their superiority of the seas than to strike a blow against the Navy by taking out a ship full of recruits through an act of piracy? Imagine their surprise when instead of a shipload of squibs, they encounter a complement of Dolphins