Human trafficking gang uncovered at Helsinki Airport

An international criminal gang is suspected to be involved in human trafficking from mainland Europe to Britain via Finland, reported the national broadcaster Yle quoting the police.

The gang was uncovered in January when Finnish border guards stopped a Swedish national and a Kuwaiti national at Helsinki in possession of another Swedish citizen’s passport.

The two men were on their way from Paris to London via Helsinki, said the report referring to a statement issued by the Finnish Border Guard.

After the preliminary investigations, the Border Guard’s Crime Prevention Unit found that the Swedish man had visited Finland on at least two previous occasions and has is suspected of trafficking two other persons from Finland to Britain between December 2019 and January 2020 using passports of other people.

The law-enforcing agency suspected that the human trafficking gang is active in Sweden and the United Kingdom, among other countries.

The police said the traffickers charged up to 8,000 euros per person for transporting from mainland Europe through various countries to the United Kingdom.

The Swedish national had applied for asylum in the United Kingdom as a Kuwaiti, providing false personal information to the UK authorities, according to the findings of the preliminary investigations.

The false identity used by the suspect in Britain was revealed when his fingerprints were compared to the fingerprints of another Kuwaiti person and they were found to be exactly the same, said the Yle report.