The Sand Pirates were a group of pirates who operated on the planet Tatooine during the Galactic Civil War
After the Battle of Yavin, the Sand Pirates were based in a bunker located near the city of Mos Entha. They used to attack any transport which found itself close to their base.
In 1 ABY, the pirates caused many troubles to local trader and interfered with the activities of Coris Mao's business partners. Mao finally contacted Sergeant Snopel, a retired Imperial commando, in order to got rid of the pirates. Snopel therefore dispatched a group of commandos under training to deal with the pirates. The commandos attacked the Sand Pirate Base and killed a large number of pirates. They also eliminated the pirate boss and eventually blew up the base, thus disrupting the pirate activities for a long time.
The Sand Pirates appeared in 2003 video game Star Wars Galaxies, a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game developed by Sony Online Entertainment and published by LucasArts, prior to its closure on December 15, 2011. The Sand Pirates were added to the game upon the release of the "Publish 25," a.k.a. the "New Game Enhancements," on November 15, 2005.