PARIS – French police say that they have broken up a high class prostitution ring operating in yachts and luxury hotel rooms in Cannes.

Dozens of young women, including former models and beauty contestants, and their wealthy middle eastern clients were briefly held after a series of police raids on flats and hotels on the Cannes waterfront.

Sixteen alleged ringleaders, including a 43 years old, Italian-based Lebanese model agency boss, have been placed in custody.

Amongst the hotels raided was the Carlton, one of the most select hotels in the world, used by movie stars and film executives during the Cannes film festival each May.

The raids were conducted by officers from the Paris-based Office Central pour la Repression de la Traite des Etres Humains – literally the office for the repression of slavery.

This is an arm of the Police Nationale which deals with elaborate and international prostitution rings.

Police sources said that they believed that the Lebanese model agency boss has been operating a high class prostitution business on the Cote d’Azur since the early summer.

Former beauty contestants and models from the United States, Latin America, Europe and Lebanon had been tempted, or tricked, into selling themselves to wealthy clients from the Middle East.

Meetings were arranged in luxury hotel rooms or aboard yachts moored offshore.

A night spent with one or more young women could cost up to 30,000 Euros (NZ$58,200), a police source told the newspaper, Le Parisien.

Dozens of young women and their clients were arrested in a series of raids on Thursday. All were later released.

Prostitution is not illegal in France.

Pimping, or “proxenetisme”, is.

Sixteen suspected organizers of the ring, mostly arrested in flats in Cannes, have been placed under arrest.

They face possible charges of conspiracy to organize a prostitution network.

Police said they had uncovered the ring through telephone taps.

They believe that the Lebanese model agency boss, named only as Elias N., had approached “retired” models and beauty contestants from as far afield as Venezuela and the United States.

They were flown to France and installed in four star hotels on the Cannes waterfront where rooms and suites cost up to 1,000 Euros a night.

The clients of the network were said by Le Parisien to include Middle eastern businessmen and aristocrats.