Finnish Border Guards said that they had collaborated with officials from the United States and Europol to crack down on a suspected international people smuggling ring.
The suspects were detained following a series of house searches in Helsinki, Vantaa and Tampere. All four individuals are suspected of aggravated facilitation of illegal entry. They are believed to have illegally smuggled people from Southern Europe to Finland and from Finland to the United States via Iceland and Mexico.
The property searches also uncovered thousands of euros in cash concealed in plastic bags. Investigators will now try to determine the origin of the banknotes.
Anti-crime Border Guards from the Gulf of Finland’s Coast Guard district will carry out the investigation. Officers from the US Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will investigate the suspected illegal entry into the United States.
