Sabah PH chairman Christina Liew said it was important to trace the source of the money, and whether the cash was linked to prostitution or human trafficking, as believed, or if there could be more to it, such as illegal gambling, drug trafficking or money laundering.
“RM13 million is not a small amount and we believe that the raid by the Sabah Immigration Department, which led to the discovery of the money, was not just a coincidence.
“It must have been followed up,” Liew said in a statement today.
“And we wonder why the informant had chosen to tip off the Immigration Department instead of the police.
“Something is just not right somewhere and the public deserve to know the truth. There should be no cover-up in this case.”
Liew, who is also Sabah PKR chairman and Api Api assemblyperson, urged the authorities to step up efforts to prevent crime syndicates from turning Kota Kinabalu into a “sin city”.
“As it is, Sabah is already infamous for human trafficking crimes, which is among the highest number in the country, as revealed by Sabah police commissioner Ramli Din in May this year,” she said.
In Friday’s operation, a tip-off from three victims of a prostitution syndicate led the Immigration Department officers to the hotel where they found the cash and rescued 17 Filipinas from being trafficked.
The three foreign women were said to have been locked up in a hotel room.
“Immigration officers inspected all the rooms in the hotel and found 17 Filipinas before discovering the cash at two places,” a source had said.
Immigration director-general Mustafar Ali confirmed the seizure, saying the department had found RM11.88 million in cash in a room in the hotel before discovering RM1.17 million at an apartment nearby.
“This is the biggest cash seizure in the history of the department,” he said when witnessing the graduation parade of immigration officers here yesterday.