SINGAPORE : Seventeen female foreigners were arrested during a joint four-hour operation at a budget hotel along Balestier Road on Thursday. Another was arrested for immigration offences.
More than 40 officers from the Criminal Investigation Department
(CID) and Tanglin Police were involved in the operation.
Preliminary police investigations indicated that some of those arrested
had made use of the Internet to advertise their sexual services.
The police said investigations are ongoing and they are currently trying
to track down the operators behind the vice activities.
Assistant director of the Specialised Crime Division, Superintendent of
Police Goh Lam Kiong, said: "The police take a serious view of such
syndicates which conduct their illicit businesses over the Internet and
will continue our enforcement efforts against such vice activities...
"Any hotel operator who is found to have knowingly allowed such
syndicates to operate in their premises will also be taken to task."
Under the Hotels Licensing Regulations, no licensee of a hotel shall
permit any person who he knows or has reason to believe is a prostitute
to occupy a room in the hotel or to frequent the premises.
A licensee who is convicted can be fined up to S$1,000. The court may
also cancel or suspend any certificate of registration or licence
granted under the Act.
- CNA/al