Abu Bakar Sidek Hassan (centre) checking the women's identification.
MALACCA: The state Immigration Department raided a watering hole in Taman Melaka Raya and detained 40 vietnamese women for allegedly offering sex services to customers.
In the 9.30pm Wednesday operation, 40 Vietnamese guest relation officers (GROs), some as young as 16-years-old, were detained.
Acting director Abu Bakar Sidek Hassan said Thursday that the operation was jointly conducted by his team and Putrajaya after receiving numerous complaints about undesirable activities at the pub.
"We raided the pub three times last year but the owner remained defiant and continued operations with impunity," he said.
Abu Bakar said during previous operations, his team had a lack of manpower but there were sufficient officers to complete the mission, successfully this time around.
"Almost 40 thugs keeping watch tried to prevent us from entering but we managed to overpower them," he said.
He said GROs were found to have violated their social visit passes while some had no valid travel documents.
Abu Bakar also revealed that these GROs were busy entertaining their clients when the premise was raided.
"All of them were nabbed and brought back to our office in Ayer Keroh for screening," he added.
