(LONDON) -- London police said Friday they are "assessing" whether the city's airports played a role in human trafficking tied to the release of the U.S. Department of Justice's files on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
"Following the further release of millions of court documents relating to Jeffrey Epstein by the United States Department of Justice, we are aware of the suggestion that London airports may have been used to facilitate human trafficking and sexual exploitation," the Metropolitan Police said in a statement on Friday. "We are assessing this information and are actively seeking further detail from law enforcement partners, including those in the United States."
The Met Police's statement comes after Essex Police said on Wednesday that they are also "assessing the information that has emerged in relation to private flights into and out of Stansted Airport following the publication of the US DoJ Epstein files."
Met Police said that it had previously investigated sex trafficking allegations involving Epstein and his convicted co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell. Maxwell has denied any knowledge of what Epstein was doing with women and girls at his various properties.
Based on guidance from the Crown Prosecution Service and U.S. authorities, "it was clear that any investigation into human trafficking would be largely focused on activities outside the UK and perpetrators based overseas and therefore international authorities were best placed to progress these allegations," Met Police said.
Met Police said it decided in 2016 not to conduct a full criminal investigation, a decision that was reviewed in 2019, 2021 and 2022 and remained unchanged.
Following the release of the Epstein materials, former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he asked Met Police "urgently to re-examine their decision-making in their investigation and the subsequent reviews," in a piece published in the New Statesman earlier this month.
"The Epstein emails, which record the visas issued, payments made and transport organised for girls and women trafficked across the world, suggest a number of British girls were on 90 Epstein flights organised from UK airports on what was called his 'Lolita Express,'" Brown wrote. "Among the many aspects that should sicken anyone looking at the emails is that 15 of these flights were given the go-ahead after his 2008 conviction for soliciting sex from a minor. How the flights were allowed to continue should have been fully investigated."
Brown further wrote that the Epstein emails "tell us in graphic detail how Epstein was able to use Stansted Airport -- he boasted how cheap the airport charges were compared to Paris -- to fly in girls from Latvia, Lithuania and Russia."
Stansted Airport, located some 30 miles northeast of central London, was where "women were transferred from one Epstein plane to another," Brown wrote, adding that "women arriving on private planes into Britain would not need British visas."
Brown also cited a BBC investigation into Epstein's private planes published late last year that found that from the early 1990s to 2018, nearly 90 flights linked to Epstein had arrived or departed from UK airports -- including some that had British women on board who alleged abuse by Epstein.
"It seems the authorities never knew what was happening: evidence the BBC has uncovered shows incomplete flight logs, with unnamed passengers simply labelled as 'female,'" Brown wrote. "To this day, the names of many of the male passengers are unknown because their names were withheld. In short, British authorities had little or no idea who was being trafficked through our country, and for whom other than Epstein."
In the wake of the Epstein files release, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor -- formerly known as Prince Andrew and the younger brother of King Charles III -- was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of misconduct in public office. He was released after 11 hours and has not been charged.
In late 2010, Mountbatten-Windsor appeared to share sensitive information stemming from his role as the U.K. trade envoy with Epstein, emails released by the U.S. DOJ suggest.
His arrest follows the emergence of documents detailing communication between him and Epstein. Mountbatten-Windsor has previously denied wrongdoing with respect to Epstein.