Hundreds of mini Eiffel Towers seized in raids on Chinese gangs

FRENCH police have struck a blow to a black-market trade that has long flourished in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower: peddling of mini replicas.

Police have detained 39 people in breaking up a Chinese-run ring of illegal Senegalese immigrants accused of selling unauthorised Eiffel Tower souvenirs.

Several vendors were arrested at or near the landmark itself in the raids this week, while their Chinese employers were detained in offices and a building used for storing the merchandise, a police spokeswoman said.

Thousands of Chinese-made mini-Eiffel Towers were seized in the raids.

Nearly 200 police, customs officers and intelligence agents took part.

The crackdown, however, apparently has not dissuaded such merchants from turning up.

Around 30 sellers, most of African origin, could still be found yesterday roaming the Trocadero plaza - one of Paris's most visited tourist spots, across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower - with their plastic towers and other merchandise two days after the raid.

"That didn't solve a thing, they just keep coming back," said a salesman who runs a legal souvenir shop. He said that the black market caused considerable losses to businesses like his, who can't match their prices. "Almost no-one buys Eiffel Towers from us now, since they sell them five times cheaper," he said.