Italy on Friday arrested three Libyans and two Algerians accused of multiple homicide and human trafficking.
Their arrest was in connection with the presumed death by drowning of no fewer than 200 migrants after a ship capsised in the Mediterranean, police said.
The five were put under formal arrest in Palermo after being questioned on Thursday. Police say migrants were beaten and stabbed during the voyage, with many locked in the hold.
The migrants drowned when the boat flipped over as the Irish Navy ship LE Niamh approached, probably because desperate passengers surged to one side as they spotted the ship.
Police said accused men, who aged from 21 to 24, charged the migrants between 1,200 dollars and 1,800 dollars the voyage.
The charges were dependent on where they would be placed on the boat, which was carrying some 650 people when it capsised off the Libyan coast. Those in the hold paid less, police said.
No fewer than 400 migrants were rescued by Italian and Irish ships. Police accused the men after speaking with many of the survivors after they arrived in Palermo.
In April, a 20-metre (66-foot) vessel capsised as it approached a merchant ship that had come to its assistance, and no fewer than 900 people were killed.
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