British police say they have arrested the suspected leaders of one of Europe's largest networks for human trafficking.
Police say the smugglers charged as much as $9,000 to smuggle immigrants - mostly from Turkey - to Britain via mainland Europe.
Police say the seven suspects arrested in London and the central English town of Boston are being held on suspicion of the facilitation of human smuggling. They say the arrests will seriously hamper the network's activities.
Eleven other people were detained in the series of raids on charges of money laundering, theft, and immigration offenses.
British police worked with their counterparts in France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Italy and Belgium during their two-year investigation of the network.
Some information for this report provided by AFP, AP and Reuters..