JOHOR BARU: Police rescued 23 Vietnamese women and teenagers forced into vice by working as guest relation officers (GROs) at entertainment centres during an Op Noda raid carried out early thir morning.
The 23 women are suspected to be human trafficking victims. They were rounded up together with another 27 Vietnamese women and one Indonesian woman, all allegedly worked as GROs at the two entertainment centres here which were raided at about 1am.
Johor police chief Datuk Mohd Khalil Kader Mohd said that Op Noda was intended to combat unhealthy and immoral activities, targeting entertainment centres which were suspected of offering services by foreign GROs.
"Police rescued 23 Vietnamese, aged 17 to 38, for allegedly being forced to work as guest relations at one of the entertainment centres.
"Two Malaysian men, aged 21 and 43, who admitted as being managers of the premises, were also detained during the raids, which were carried out by a state Criminal Investigation Department team.
"The two Malaysian men are being investigated under the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants (ATIPSOM) Act 2007 for exploiting people including the underage persons to work as GROs," said Khalil in a statement.
He said action will also be taken against the duo for allegedly hiring and protecting foreign workers without valid permits under the Immigration Act, and operating an entertainment centre without a valid licence which is an offence under the Johor State Entertainment Enactment.
The police inspected 108 Malaysian men and 10 Malaysian women who patronised the entertainment centres during the same operation.
A 48-year-old Indonesian male patron was detained for his failure to show any valid travel document during the checks.
In revealing Johor police statistics on vice raids, Khalil said 2,028 foreign women, 120 foreign men, 530 Malaysian men and 144 Malaysian women were detained during 823 raids at vice dens, massage parlours, spas and entertainment centres between January and August this year.
"Police seized RM93,753 in cash believed to be gains from the vice activities during those raids.
"A total of 500 people were charged in court, while 435 summonses were issued because the entertainment premises were operating without valid licences and 79 other summonses were issued for violating licencing requirements," he said.
On a separate issue, Khalil said an operation against street crime was held in the five police districts in Iskandar Malaysia, Batu Pahat and Muar between Aug 30 and Sept 12.
The two-week operation led to the arrest of 571 people and had put a stop to 14 gangs involved in robbery and snatch thefts in Iskandar Malaysia.
"Throughout the operation, 19,155 people and 13,519 vehicles were inspected. A total of 1,695 summonses were issued for various offences.
"Johor police managed to reduce the number of street crime by 16.67 per cent throughout the operation.
"The number of street crime recorded in the fortnight prior to the operation was 66 cases, while this figure dropped to 55 cases during the operation period," said Khalil, after flagging off 2,000 participants in the Harmony Run and Carnival 2017 event outside Sutera Mall, Skudai today.
Pulai MP Office secretary Datuk Abd Rashid Kasman, who represented Pulai MP Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed was also present to flag off the participants.
Also present were at the event organiser's Tanah Sutera Development Sdn Bhd general manager Steven Shum, deputy state police chief Datuk Mohd Kamarudin Md Din, state Criminal Investigation Department chief Senior Assistant Commissioner Azman Ayob, and Johor Baru Utara district police chief Assistant Commissioner Mohd Taib Ahmad.