keeping legit customers away, while everything from high-end power tools to ripoff Luis Vuitton handbags is sold outside.

In the past, the vendors - many of them suspected illegal immigrants - packed the merchandise into waiting cars with out-of-state license plates, or simply got out of sight until the cops moved on.

In one of the most recent raids, the NYPD locked up at least one of the shady vendors in April, charging him with second-degree trademark counterfeiting - a charge that is not eligible for bail in the state.

5 Just 30 minutes after an NYPD raid on Sunday, illegal merchants were back in business on Canal Street. Michael Nigro for NY Post

 When the police is gone, they're here,  one local businessman said at the time.  They always come back. 

 Police arrest some of them sometimes, but a few days later they're back,  he said.  Sometimes they stand in front of the door. We tell them to move out of the way. Sometimes they do, sometimes they argue. 

The NYPD declined to comment on Sunday.

Additional reporting by Steven Vago