Police smash people-smuggling ring which funneled hundreds of illegal immigrants into Europe

The Paris prosecutor's office said detectives had dismantled an alleged immigrant smuggling ring and arrested 24 people in Paris and other French towns and cities as part of 'Operation Baghdad'.

The arrests were the result of a multi-country investigation, the office said in a statement. It said police in eight other European countries - Germany, Belgium, Britain, Greece, Ireland, Norway, Netherlands and Sweden - have also detained people believed linked to the ring.

Victims: Iraqi Kurds were funneled into northern Europe by the ring

The prosecutor's office said the probe has uncovered a 'well-structured transnational cell' that brought hundreds of immigrants to Scandinavian countries, Britain and Ireland.

The immigrants were mostly Iraqi Kurds, but also included people from Afghanistan, China, Turkey and Bangladesh, the French statement said.

The would-be immigrants paid about £7,600-10,00 to be brought to Europe, it said.

Monday's arrests took place in Paris, Cherbourg on the Atlantic coast and other regions.

The suspects were between 21 and 48 years old, and can be held up to four days for questioning.

In Sweden, 12 people have been detained in connection with Operation Baghdad.

Lost out: A Kurdish woman demonstrates on the streets of Baghdad

Five people were questioned Monday in Karlstad and Boras but later released, Prosecutor Marie Lind-Thomsen said.

One man in his fifties was arrested in Karlstad in central Sweden on Monday on suspicion of aggravated people smuggling.

Police spokeswoman Ulla Ahlback said six people were detained last week in the southern Swedish province of Skane as part of the operation.

In the Netherlands, Dutch border police arrested three men Monday in the northern city of Leeuwarden who are "suspected of involvement in a European network of human smugglers," the Dutch National Prosecutor's Office said.

Documents, cell phones, a computer and travel documents were seized in raids on two houses, the prosecutor said. Those arrested are suspected of smuggling Iraqi Kurds to Scandinavia.

No other details were immediately available about detentions in other countries.