French authorities have dismantled a ring of Chinese smugglers who brought compatriots in on tourist visas only to have them work for a pittance in Parisian restaurants.

According to Xavier Delrieu, head of the Police Division tat targets illegal workers, the network worked with a travel agency in China for issuing of tourist visas.

The victims “were then picked up by the network, which housed them and made them work for a pitiful salary, mainly in Chinese restaurants around the Paris region,”

Some 200 illegal immigrants are believed to have arrived in France from China via the network over the past three to four years.

They paid 5,000 euros (almost $6,000) each for a tourist visa, many hoping to obtain asylum once in France.

The sting resulted in the arrests of six men and a woman in the Paris area on Tuesday, and the seizure of some 20,000 euros in cash and another 300,000 euros in bank accounts.