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