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 Nine questioned over tower trinkets as Paris clamps down on illegal souvenir trade 
 
 French police have seized 20 tonnes of miniature Eiffel Towers in a crackdown on the illegal souvenir trade in Paris. 
 
 Nine people – including vendors, wholesalers and intermediaries – were questioned and could face fast-tracked trials after a long-running investigation into the French capital’s lucrative black-market trade in trinkets. 
 
 Beneath the Eiffel Tower, or in parks near museums such as the Louvre, scores of people are regularly found selling armfuls of miniature Eiffel Towers to tourists. The trinkets – from keyrings to ornaments – can sell for as little as €1 for five and up to €10 for the largest models. 
 
 But those selling the miniature Eiffel Towers are often migrants forced to flee from police checks. The sight of terrified men suddenly gathering up their street displays of Eiffel Tower trinkets and sprinting off while tourists look on confused is a common fixture around Paris’s most popular attractions. 
 
 This week, a joint investigation involving French immigration authorities led to a raid on three Chinese wholesalers suspected of importing miniature Eiffel Towers and supplying a network of vendors in Paris. 
 
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 More than 1,000 boxes, containing a total of 20 tonnes of miniature Eiffel Towers, were seized from two depots and three shops in the Paris region, a security official confirmed to Agence France-Presse. 
 
 The haul was estimated to be worth up to €800,000. Cars were also seized in the raids. 
 
 Guillaume Fauconnier of Paris police’s organised crime department told Le Parisien: “The 20 tonnes [of Eiffel Towers] are worth between €500,000 and €800,000 of merchandise. Searches also found machines for counting notes and coins. That gives an idea of the scale of this market.” 

 Image copyright AFP/Getty Image caption The Eiffel Tower, one of Paris' iconic landmarks, has six million tourists a year 
 
 French police have seized 20 tonnes of miniature Eiffel Towers in an operation to dismantle an extensive network selling souvenirs in the capital Paris. 
 
 A joint probe with French immigration officials resulted in raids on Chinese wholesalers suspected of importing and supplying the goods to illegal vendors. 
 
 Nine people were arrested, media said. 
 
 The small metal replicas are sold for as little as five for one euro at tourist hotspots like the Louvre museum and outside the real Eiffel Tower. 
 
 More than 1,000 boxes containing the pointy keepsakes were found at two depots and three shops in the Paris region on Monday evening and Tuesday morning, local reports said. 
 
 In the past, authorities have struggled to crack down on the counterfeit souvenirs, often illegally sold to tourists by undocumented migrants who run at the sight of police.
– French authorities have seized more than 20 tons of mini Eiffel towers as part of a crackdown on the illegal sale of souvenirs. Nine people, including wholesalers, were arrested in connection with the sale of the trinkets, which are often sold near tourist attractions in the French capital by undocumented immigrants who flee at the first sign of police, the Guardian reports. Police worked with immigration officials to plan the raids on Chinese wholesalers, reports the BBC. A police spokesman says more than 1,000 boxes of souvenirs worth up to $800,000 were seized, along with note-counting machines, which "gives some idea of the scale of this market."