Italian authorities recently an estimated 450 migrants from an aging freighter that human traffickers abandoned, but not before setting it to travel at full speed, and aiming the craft at Italy's shores, The New York Times reports.

Fortunately, those that participated in the rescue were able to board the craft without incident, but their task was made much easier once the ship, dubbed the Ezadeen, ran out of fuel.

Authorities suspect that human traffickers have begun to adopt new tactics, which previously were centered around using smaller ships to smuggle refugees to Europe. The Ezadeen is a large, steel-hulled freighter. The ship was originally designed to haul livestock.

According to an official of the Italian navy, traffickers are "secure in the knowledge that no one is going to allow a boat to crash on Italian or Greek shores." This may be the reason why they've recently begun using large ships, as opposed to smaller vessels.

With each migrant paying as much as $6,000 to board such vessels for the chance of a better life in Europe, the refugee business is lucrative. Each vessel, when fully packed with refugees, could net smugglers as much as $1,000,000 per ship. Plus, with this possible new shift in strategy for smugglers, they stand an improved chance of delivering their cargo while evading capture by law enforcement bodies.

Carlotta Sami, a spokeswoman for the United Nations refugee agency, says that smugglers were increasingly using old cargo ships ready to be dismantled over the past couple of months. Sami was speaking with Reuters when she made that statement.

"They usually don't even have any electronic equipment on board," Sami said. 

Some reports indicate that after being at sea for six days, the migrants, which consisted in part of pregnant women and children, used up all of the food, water, and milk that was on the ship.

Antonio Saccone, an analyst at Frontex, which is the European border agency, said that the use of larger vessels "shows how powerful and sophisticated the smuggling networks have become." 

It will be interesting to see how European authorities will shift their tactics to combat the change in strategy on the part of human smugglers.

"It's worrisome, because this new route seems to have very well-organized traffickers," Mr. Di Giacomo, a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration said. "And if they manage to make a lot of money, they'll be able to buy other ships."