Foreign civil servant among eight women nabbed for prostitution in Penang

GEORGE TOWN: Police arrested eight foreign women, including a civil servant from a neighbouring country on Friday (Aug 18), believed to be involved in prostitution activities in the Timur Laut district.

District police chief ACP Soffian Santong said that police carried out operations from 6pm to 10pm by conducting seven raids on several premises such as budget hotels, guesthouses and apartments suspected of engaging in prostitution activities.

“During the raids, police detained eight foreign women, aged 25 to 47, believed to be involved in prostitution activities.

“Following their arrest, the police also seized equipment and RM2,200 in cash, believed to be the proceeds of these activities,” he said in a statement Monday (Aug 21).

He said initial investigations found that all the women entered the country using social visit passes and some of them had expired passes.

Soffian said that based on the investigation, it was also found that they were looking for customers using the WeChat application and charging between RM150 and RM250 for the service.

He added that following the raids, police came across a media report which reported that one of the women detained is the wife of a civil servant from a neighbouring country.

“Our investigation found that one of the women admitted that she was a civil servant in a neighbouring country and claimed to have come to this country to carry out prostitution activities to earn extra income,” he said.

He said the police are conducting further investigations including obtaining confirmation from the consulate of that country.

All eight women were remanded for further investigation and their cases were investigated under Section 372B of the Penal Code, Section 15(1)(c) of the Immigration Act 1959/63 and Regulation 39B of the Immigration Regulations 1959. – Bernama