British police are assessing whether Jeffrey Epstein trafficked women through a London airport using private flights, as part of a now nationally coordinated effort to investigate the late sex offender's links to Britain, Reuters reports.
Essex Police said on Wednesday they were looking into information that emerged about private flights to and from Stansted Airport, northeast of London, after the US government released millions of documents on Epstein in late January.
The assessment, which does not constitute a formal investigation, came after British police formed a national coordination group to provide support to individual police departments investigating Epstein's links to Britain or British nationals.
"We continue to work together to assess the details being released and understand the potential impact arising from the millions of documents released," the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) said in a statement, Reuters reported.
Storm in Britain
The Epstein affair has already had a major impact in Britain.
Two police departments are questioning the former British ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson, and King Charles' younger brother, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, over allegations of abuse of office. The Epstein files suggest that both passed confidential government documents to the late American financier.
Both have denied any wrongdoing and expressed regret over their friendship with Epstein, but did not respond to specific requests for comment after the release of the latest documents.
The BBC reported last year that incomplete flight records and passenger manifests showed that 87 flights linked to Epstein arrived at or departed from British airports between the early 1990s and 2018, with unidentified "female individuals" listed among the passengers, according to Reuters.
Documents from Epstein's files contain multiple references to Stansted Airport, including one entry discussing whether a Russian national with a US visa could transit at the airport. The files also contain dozens of references to British visas.
Stansted Airport said that private flights are not handled by the terminal they manage, and that the Border Force is responsible for immigration and customs controls.
Under Border Force rules, all persons arriving in Britain are subject to a thorough check.
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