The UK is not pressing ahead with court action arising from the suspected hijacking of a Navios product tanker off the Isle of Wight off southern England.
Special forces stormed the 75,000-dwt Nave Andromeda (built 2011) on 25 October after the crew raised concerns about stowaways.
Matthew Okorie, 25, and Sunday Sylvester, 22, were charged with conduct endangering ships in December.
The cases have now been discontinued after new expert evidence emerged, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said on Friday.
Hampshire Constabulary said the five other men, who were arrested on suspicion of seizing or exercising control of a ship by use of threats or force, also face no police action.
They will remain detained under immigration regulations, however.
Sophie Stevens, senior district crown prosecutor, said: "The CPS has a duty to keep all cases under continuous review and after additional maritime expert evidence came to light, we concluded there was no longer a realistic prospect of conviction and discontinued the case."
The nature of the new evidence has not been revealed.
Okorie and Sylvester had been due to appear in court again on 29 January. They did not enter a plea when they appeared at Southampton Magistrates' Court last month.
The alleged hijackers gained control of the ship after it arrived in UK waters, but following a 10-hour standoff, the situation was resolved when the special forces dramatically regained control in just nine minutes.
The men had boarded at Lagos, Nigeria.
No injuries
None of the 22 crew on board were harmed during the incident.
Navios Tanker Management, the ship's manager, praised the response of the crew. In a statement issued at the time, the company said the ship’s master had acted with "exemplary response and calmness."
It praised the crew for their “fortitude in a difficult situation”.
In a similar incident involving the 5,700-lane-metre con-ro Grande Tema (built 2014) in the Thames Estuary in December 2018, a court jailed four men for 16 months.
They were cleared of hijacking but found guilty of affray and making threats to kill.
