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Finland detains Swedish man suspected of human trafficking

Xinhua, February 5, 2015 Adjust font size:

A Swedish man suspected of smuggling an 11-year-old boy into Finland has been detained by the Finnish Border Guard, local media reported on Wednesday.

The Swede was accused of trafficking the boy from the Middle East to Sweden via Singapore and Finland, said Finnish national broadcaster Yle.

The Finnish Border Guard took the man into custody at the Helsinki-Vantaa airport last Saturday. The authority did not reveal the case until Wednesday, said Yle.

The boy was traveling on someone else's passport, said the border authority.

The preliminary investigation showed that the Swedish man, aged around 50, and the boy did not know each other before the journey.

Yle said the boy might have been sent to Sweden as part of a larger plan to bring his family to the country later.

The Finnish border guard suspected the man had been involved in other human trafficking cases, and this case was possibly related to larger organized crime activity.

Finnish newspaper Aamulehti said the Swede was transferred to Vantaa district court for custody on Tuesday, on suspicion of aggravated facilitation of illegal entry. Endit