Immigration busts prostitution ring, 72 arrested

PUTRAJAYA: The Immigration Department has successfully busted a syndicate supplying foreign women for sex services and arrested 72 foreigners in special operations conducted around Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.
 
Immigration director-general Datuk Ruslin Jusoh said the operations, which started at 9pm and involved officers of various ranks from the Immigration headquarters’ Intelligence and Special Operations Division in Putrajaya, were conducted in Cheras and Kepong as a result of information and intelligence.
 
“Also arrested were seven local men who acted as ‘captains’ and caretakers of the premises,” he said in a statement today.
 
He said five premises were raided and 72 foreigners arrested, involving 43 Vietnamese women, 15 Indonesian women, six Thai women, four Vietnamese men, three Bangladeshi men, and an Indian man, aged 25 to 42.
 
Ruslin said the initial inspection found that they committed various offences, including not having valid travel documents, expired social visit passes, and misuse of passes, and that the detained foreign women were believed to have provided sex services to customers.
 
Also seized were 48 Vietnamese passports and a grey SUV-type vehicle believed to be used to ferry foreign women to places chosen by customers, as well as RM6,275 in cash believed to be the result of payment for services offered, he said.
 
It was also found that this syndicate was operating in a three-storey shoplot unit, with the first floor serving as a living quarter while the second and third floors were used as places for sex services.
 
He said that the modus operandi of the syndicate is that customers who want to get the services will deal through the WhatsApp application and will be given a password to enter the premises, and the women’s bookings are charged RM230 per hour.
 
He said the syndicate was believed to have been operating for almost two years and advertised sex services on social media groups, including WhatsApp and Telegram.
 
Twenty local men, who are customers at the premises, have been issued notices to appear and give statements to assist the investigation.
 
All foreigners arrested were taken to the Semenyih Immigration Depot for action and investigation for offences under the Immigration Act 1959/63, the Passport Act 1966, the Immigration Regulations 1963, and the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007. – BERNAMA