Police personnel gather the women at one of the massage centres in Kuching during Ops Noda.
KUCHING: Twenty-two foreign women were apprehended at five reflexology centres – three in the city centre and two at Batu Kawah New Township – during an anti-vice operation here during the weekend.
According to state CID chief Dato Dev Kumar, police also detained four men during Ops Noda, which was conducted following public tip-off.
“We received information that some of the reflexology centres in the city might be offering ‘extra services other than massages. We suspect that these premises could be prostitution dens, disguised as massage centres,” he said in a statement yesterday.
Adding on, Dev said the four men arrested might be the caretakers of the premises.
Of the 22 women, 10 are Chinese nationals, eight Vietnamese and four from the Philippine.
“Various items, believed to be sex paraphernalia, were also seized from the premises,” Dev said, adding that the case would be investigated under the Penal Code, Immigration Act and Entertainment Ordinance.
“The state CID will continue raiding premises across the city that are believed to be engaged in vice activities. We are issuing a stern warning to all massage parlours and reflexology centres that continue employing foreign ‘prostitutes’ – that we will come knocking on their doors soon,” he stressed.