The group includes a ground staff employee at Hong Kong's airport, along with two other former airport workers. Their arrests were announced this week.
"They are suspected of being involved in boarding pass swapping, passport selling and conspiracy to defraud the airline operator," a Hong Kong immigration department spokeswoman told the China Daily newspaper.
Canada Border Services Agency / AP
Hong Kong authorities have arrested eight people suspected of helping smuggle a young Chinese passenger, left, onto a flight to Canada last October. The man, believed to be in his 20s, disguised himself as an elderly man, center and right.
The alleged plot apparently began unraveling after Air Canada flight attendants saw something peculiar on a flight from Hong Kong to Vancouver last October. An elderly, frail-looking Caucasian man hobbled down the cabin aisle to the restroom, but when the compartment door opened a few minutes later, a young Asian man emerged.
Authorities at the time called it an "unbelievable case of concealment" and said the culprit confessed to the ruse, even showing them the realistic mask he wore and demonstrating how he faked an old man's walk. He applied for refugee status on arrival in Canada and is being held there by authorities.
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The five men and three women arrested in Hong Kong last weekend are suspected of helping "illegal migrants board Canada-bound flights in at least five cases," an unnamed immigration spokeswoman told Agence France-Presse. They apparently charged migrants $45,000 each to help them sneak into Canada, she said.The cases took place between April and October 2010, the Montreal Gazette reported. The suspects range in age from 26 to 62, it said.
It's unclear how many of the other migrants may have used similar disguises. The young Asian man aroused suspicion on his flight in October after fellow passengers noticed that his hands looked young while the rest of him -- covered in the "old man" mask -- looked aged.
He and the other migrants are believed to have come from mainland China. The suspects are accused of supplying them with false identity papers and disguises once they arrived in Hong Kong.