STOCKHOLM, May 18 (Xinhua) -- A 45-year-old Syrian man living in Sweden has been arrested at Denmark's Kastrup airport on suspicion of financing terrorism by smuggling refugees into Europe, Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter reported on Friday.

The man is a Syrian citizen and has been living in Sweden with his family since 2012. He was arrested during a layover in Copenhagen on the request of Italian police, who had been tracking him.

The man is suspected of having run a refugee-smuggling operation out of his apartment in the town of Finspang in southeast Sweden. He apparently charged people fleeing Syria to arrange their smuggling into Europe. The money was then allegedly used to fund terrorist activity in Syria.

According to criminal investigators, the man was part of a network that sent a total 20 million SEK (2.2 million U.S. dollars) from Italy, Sweden, Denmark and Germany to extremist groups such as the Al-Nusra Front. (1 U.S. dollar=8.74 SEK)