"In our view the people smuggling has been going on since 2012," Folestad told the Dagens Nyheter newspaper, as quoted by the Local.
The arrest took place on Wednesday during a joint police raid with the prosecutor and the Swedish Economic Crime Authority, in the Norrkoping area in central Sweden and the suspects include both males and females between the ages of 20 and 50.
Europe has been beset by a massive refugee crisis, with hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants from the Middle East and North Africa fleeing their home countries to escape violence and poverty. Many migrants have arrived by sea to the shores of maritime states and try to move further to wealthier European countries, such as Germany and Sweden.
In January, Sweden started to tighten its migrant policy, in particular, by imposing identity checks on people arriving in the country, later denying of accommodation to those who were refused asylum. In mid-2016, the Swedish Parliament adopted a law to limit asylum seekers' possibilities of being granted residence permits and the possibility for the applicant's family to come to Sweden.
The number of asylum seekers that are expected to reach Sweden by the end of 2016 is expected to reach 32,000 people compared to over 163,000 arrivals in 2015, according to the Swedish Migration Agency.
