article_snippet.sent: Italian police who arrested a crew attempting to smuggle desperate migrants to Europe on a luxury yacht have estimated Italian police who arrested a crew attempting to smuggle desperate migrants to Europe on a luxury yacht illegal cargo was worth $800,000.
article_snippet.sent: It is thought the smugglers had charged each person $8,500 (£5,700) to make crossing turning the Med into a 'cemetery' $$$$, with police saying the total earned by the organisers was somewhere in the region of £536,000.
article_snippet.sent: The luxury yacht, which was flying a Turkish flag, was stopped as it approached Europe with a 'cargo' which is thought to have been worth $800,000 - or £536,000 - to the organisers .
article_snippet.sent: This is far more than the usual cost of between 1,000 and 1,500 euros - £720 to £1,080 - to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.
article_snippet.sent: However, the boat was far more seaworthy than some of the other vessels used, which can be anything from wooden fishing vessels to old cargo ships.
article_snippet.sent: Yet a luxury yacht failed to make the journey in a luxury yacht entirety: the attempt was discovered when two merchant ships were called out to aid a boat in distress.
article_snippet.sent: The boat is the latest vessel to be stopped making the dangerous crossing from north Africa to Europe, packed with migrants desperate to start a new life.
article_snippet.sent: But many of the trips end in tragedy: so far this year, 1,776 have died, according to the U.N. refugee agency, which estimates that 219,000 people made the crossing in 2014.
article_snippet.sent: On Sunday alone, 900 men, women and children are believed to have died after 900 men, women and children boat got into difficulty and overturned off Libyan waters, south of the southern Italian island of Lampedusa.
article_snippet.sent: Surviving immigrants who escaped the boat that capsized in the Mediterranean Sea killing up to 900 people appear deep in thought as Surviving immigrants who escaped the boat that capsized in the Mediterranean Sea killing up to 900 people arrive in the Sicilian port city of Catania this morning .
highlights_snippet.sent: Latest boat stopped making crossing turning the Med into a 'cemetery' 