Police have seized more than a half million dollars worth of fake designer label clothing and arrested eight men in West Haven.

The counterfeit clothing turned up after a search warrant was issued to check out a public storage facility as part of a probation investigation, authorities said Monday.

On Sunday, Police seized a tractor-trailer load of other fake designer goods valued at $553,614. Police also arrested eight people in New York, all of them foreign nationals, for allegedly selling counterfeit goods that they kept at a self-storage facility.

Police also seized a bag of brand-name tags they believe were being sewn into the clothes locally, detectives Paul Raucci and Joseph Biondi said.

The arrests resulted from an initial effort by federal probation agents to pick up one man for alleged violation of probation. It turned into an investigative operation that included search warrants for 11 storage compartments and cooperation between the probation department, the FBI, West Haven police, New Haven police, and the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service.

None of those arrested were U.S. citizens, said Raucci. Six were originally from Lebanon, one was from Nigeria, and one was from Morocco, he said.

–Associated Press