KUALA LUMPUR: Foreign prostitutes working at an abandoned hotel in Jalan Pasar Baharu in Pudu, here, have changed their tactics.
They no longer look for clients at a restaurant on the ground floor of the hotel, following raids carried out by police there recently.
Instead, they wait outside their respective rooms on the sixth to 10th floor of the hotel.
Their new modus operandi, however, was detected by police, who raided the hotel yet again last night.
The Op Noda #KLStrikeForce raid was carried out by the Kuala Lumpur Anti-Vice, Gaming and Secret Societies Division (D7) of the Criminal Investigation Department.
The 11.45pm raid was led by Assistant Superintendent Saifulazhar Abd Khodir.
City police chief Datuk Rusdi Mohd Isa said checks on the premises turned up various items such as condoms, lubricants, massage oils and tissues.
"Investigations revealed that the women offered sex services for RM100 to foreigners and regular clients between 10pm and 4m every night.
"The women were believed to entered the country as tourists in order to carry out their prostitution activities as 'freelance' workers, without being controlled by any 'guardian'," he said.
Rusdi said police detained 10 women, all of whom were taken to the Dang Wangi police headquarters for documentation and further action.
"The case is being investigated under Section 372B of the Penal Code (for soliciting for purpose of prostitution) and Section 6(1)(c) of the Immigration Act 1959/63 (for abusing valid entry permits)," he said.
During the raid, journalists observed both the women and their clients running helter-skelter in bids to escape the authorities. Some tried to hide in toilets.
The use of eateries and food courts as "advertising" avenues for sex services by foreign women had hit the news over the past few months, even garnering the attention of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
Recently, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Federal Territories) Dr Zaliha Mustafa had said, since the formation of the KL Strike Force to weed out prostitution in the federal capital, the tactics of sex workers and syndicates had evolved.