Rescue operations are carried out on Rhodes island, Greece, April 20, 2015. (Xinhua)

THE HAGUE, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- Europol on Thursday announced that an organized group accused of facilitating the illegal entry of migrants from southern Europe to Finland and onwards to the United States via Iceland and Mexico, was dismantled earlier this month.

The group was dismantled on Oct. 10 in a joint action launched by the Finnish Border Guard, the Icelandic Police and U.S. authorities. Four members of the criminal gang were arrested in Finland. Europol's European Migrant Smuggling Centre supported the investigation with information exchange and analysis.

Also in October, in another joint action launched by the French and the German police, was dismantled an organized crime group involved in the illegal smuggling of Indian nationals into Europe. Six suspects thought to be the ring leaders were arrested in France, and a further eight in Germany.

The organised crime group used a travel agency in the country of origin in order to arrange for the migrants' departure to Europe. The travel agency supplied visas to migrants from the Gujarat region (India) by sending them to consulates using fake supporting documents. The price for such a service varied from 7,000 euro (8,280 U.S. dollars) for one person to 25,000 euro for a family.

Once the visas were obtained, the network would arrange for the victims travel to the suburbs of Paris. They were then transported to eastern Germany, where they were forced to work for a very low pay, overstaying the legal duration of their tourism visa. (1 euro = 1.18 U.S. dollars)