The Times: Epstein exploited UK airports as human trafficking network

Jeffrey Epstein, a notorious financier and paedophile, repeatedly arranged flights transporting young women from the US to the UK and back, using a British airport as a transit point for human trafficking, according to documents from the “Epstein files” released by the US Department of Justice.

Records of bookings, fuel receipts, and flight logs reveal Jeffrey Epstein’s arrivals and departures from the UK prior to his death in a Manhattan jail in 2019, The Times reports.

The documents also indicate that the convicted sex trafficker continued to arrange commercial flights for young women either from or via the UK up until June 2019, just a month before his final arrest.

These findings emerge as six UK police forces investigate claims of trafficking linked to Epstein’s private jet, nicknamed the “Lolita Express.”

Authorities are scrutinising the aircraft’s movements at UK commercial airports as well as Royal Air Force bases, including RAF Northolt.

Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called for an urgent investigation. In an interview with The New Statesman, he noted that the released files indicate 90 flights to or from UK airports, including 15 after Epstein’s conviction in 2008.

Document review revealed that Epstein’s assistant, Leslie Groff, arranged flights from Heathrow to New York for a Russian citizen a month before the financier’s final arrest. 

In correspondence with an American Express concierge, she requested adding an “unbooked” hotel to the itinerary, and in another instance, arranging a flight for a woman travelling to Miami to create the appearance of a return ticket.

Groff’s lawyers previously stated that their client “never witnessed anything improper or illegal.” 

Documents also show that Epstein consulted aviation experts on the possibility of a woman entering the UK with a Russian passport and then flying onward to the US

By Jeyhun Aghazada