Hong Kong police arrest 27 suspected prostitutes in anti-vice operation, warn of potential for sex work to spread coronavirus
- The 27 women are suspected of entering the city illegally, with police saying they could have come into contact with as many as 2,000 clients in recent weeks
- The women will be handed over to other law enforcement agencies, which will arrange for them to take coronavirus tests
Twenty-seven suspected mainland prostitutes who were swept up in a recent series of raids are believed to have come into contact with more than 2,000 clients while plying their trade in Hong Kong hotels and massage parlours over the past three weeks, according to police.
The 27 women – who are suspected of entering the city illegally from the mainland as early as September – were rounded up along with five others in Yau Ma Tei and Tsim Sha Tsui in an anti-vice operation code-named “Icypond” that was launched on Sunday night.
Three of the other suspects were accused of being ringleaders of the prostitution syndicate that smuggled the alleged sex workers into the city and arranged for them to work in five four-star hotels and two unlicensed massage parlours in Yau Ma Tei and Tsim Sha Tsui, according to police. The remaining two suspects were suspected of being a member of the syndicate and the alleged ringleaders’ assistant, respectively.
“To avoid detection, members of the syndicate were deployed to deliver meals and daily necessities to their rooms so that the women did not need to go out,” Inspector Lee Man-kit of the Yau Tsim special duty squad said.
He said the sex workers were moved from one hotel to another every two weeks, and lookouts were stationed in the lobbies.
Officers believe each of the women, most of them in their 20s, had sex with four to six men a day.
Suspected sex worker sparks difficult contact-tracing effort after contracting Covid-19
After an in-depth investigation, police descended on the properties on Sunday night and made the arrests. During the operation, officers seized HK$410,000 (about US$53,000) in cash.
Chief Inspector Yan, of the Yau Tsim police district, said he believed the syndicate had been operating since September and could pocket as much as HK$50,000 a day.
He said the sex workers had undergone temperature checks after the arrests, and none of them showed symptoms of Covid-19. He added that they would be handed over to other law enforcement agencies who would help them take Covid-19 tests.
As of Tuesday afternoon, all the suspects were being held for questioning at Tsim Sha Tsui police station and none of them had been charged.
Man who visited sex worker before testing positive for Covid-19 sparks tracking operation
The anti-vice operation comes just months after a similar sting in October in which a suspected sex worker from the mainland tested positive for Covid-19 following her arrest.
Police at the time were tasked with tracking down about 70 clients she had seen during her 14-day incubation period.
Last month, a Hong Kong man who sought the services of a sex worker in a Mong Kok brothel before testing positive for Covid-19 also sparked a police contact-tracing operation to track down the prostitute involved.
