THE Immigration Department successfully busted a syndicate supplying foreign women to provide sex services and arrested 72 foreigners in special operations conducted around Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.

Immigration director-general Ruslin Jusoh said the operations, which started at 9pm, involved officers of various ranks from the Immigration headquarters’ Intelligence and Special Operations Division in Putrajaya. The raids 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 sites were raided and 72 foreigners arrested – 43 Vietnamese women, 15 Indonesian women, six Thai women, four Vietnamese men, three Bangladeshi men and an Indian man. They were aged between 25 and 42.

Ruslin said initial inspection found these individuals committed various offences including not having valid travel documents, staying on in the country on expired social visit passes and misuse of passes. 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 shop lot unit with the first floor as living quarters while the second and third floors were used as places for sex services.

Ruslin also said the syndicate’s modus operandi is customers who want the women’s services would communicate via WhatsApp and given a password to enter the premises. Each booking is charged RM230 per hour.

He said the syndicate is believed to have been operating for almost two years and advertised services offered on messaging platforms such as WhatsApp and Telegram.

Twenty local men who were customers at the premises have been issued notices to give their statements to assist in investigations.

All of the individuals arrested were taken to the Semenyih Immigration Depot for 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, June 18, 2023.