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Paris police have announced the arrest of a pickpocketing ring, reportedly responsible for stealing €4,000 ($4,392) a day from tourists visiting the Eiffel Tower, Jelisa Castrodale of USA Today's Road Warrior Voices reported. The thieves had become such an issue with tower employees, they walked off the job last week.
According to Castrodale, the ring, also active at the Palace of Versailles, had been operating for the past two years, and has an as-yet-undetermined number of members; news sources vary between seven and 10.
They used numerous techniques for stealing wallets, including dressing like tourists and buying tickets to the top of the tower to avoid suspicion. Flush with the ill-gotten funds, they spend evenings in luxury hotels.
The French paper Le Figaro stated, via Castrodale, that Paris police detectives had been working undercover for months, infiltrating the ring, in order to "trace the thieves back to their nest." The group of all-male Romanian nationals was arrested after a raid of two hotels. Luxury goods, €3,300 in cash, and tickets for the Eiffel Tower and the palace were found.
Regarding the efforts leading up to the bust, a police spokesman said, "There is a tremendous investigative work, as if you were investigating drug trafficking. To dismantle the network we had to identify the role of each in the gang. Stopping a pickpocket in the act is of little use, he will only continue after he is released."
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