62 mainland Chinese and Taiwanese ‘prostitutes’ arrested as Hong Kong police raid karaoke bar ‘run by triads’
PUBLISHED : Friday, 18 September, 2015, 5:57pm
UPDATED : Friday, 18 September, 2015, 5:57pm
Clifford Lo
[email protected]
Police escort the suspected prostitutes out of the bar. Photo: SCMP Pictures
Sixty-two suspected prostitutes were arrested at a karaoke bar in Hong Kong’s red-light district last night in an operation one veteran police officer believed was the biggest bust of its kind the city has seen in recent years.
The women, from mainland China and Taiwan, were held along with five Hongkongers. About HK$300,000 in cash was also seized at the three-storey venue on Lockhart Road in Wan Chai, which was previously used as an elderly home. The bar is next to the former Wan Chai police station.
One police source said the sex ring was controlled by the Sun Yee On triad society and generated more than HK$1 million in turnover per month.
According to police, the karaoke bar had been open for business for more than a year, but intelligence indicated the sex ring started its business there about two months ago.
“To attract more clients, the gang brought in Taiwanese women to service them,” the source said.
“Our investigation showed that [in addition to alcohol charges,] clients were charged up to HK$3,000 each to drink and sing with the women.”
He said clients were charged up to HK$10,000 each to take a woman for sex in nearby love hotels.
The women were arrested for breaching their conditions of stay. Photo: SCMP Pictures
It is understood the karaoke bar only served regular clients and most of them were businessmen from the mainland.
Yesterday, plainclothes officers posing as customers were sent to collect evidence at about 10pm. Police raided the bar shortly before midnight in the operation, codenamed “Beeboxer”.
The 62 women – 47 mainlanders and 15 Taiwanese aged 18 to 43 – were in Hong Kong as tourists. They were arrested for breaching their conditions of stay.
Police arrested the five Hongkongers – three men and two women – on suspicion of managing a vice establishment and living on the earnings of prostitution.
This evening, all the suspects were still being held for questioning and none of them had been charged.
Officers from the Hong Kong Island regional anti-crime squad were investigating.
It is understood karaoke bars in the city usually charge clients less than HK$1,000 to sing and drink with a woman for two to three hours, excluding the price of alcohol.
Separately, police and immigration officers mounted a joint anti-vice operation in Yuen Long over the past two days and arrested 34 women visitors from the mainland.
