The police were able to unearth such activity through raids under Ops Noda at five budget hotels here, at 10.30pm, on Aug 27 and at 5.30pm yesterday.
State police chief Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay said 12 men and a local woman, aged 31 to 63 years, were detained. They are suspected to be the organisers of the prostitution ring.
Also detained were 21 women from Vietnam, Indonesia (nine) and Thailand (one), aged from 19 to 36 years. They are all believed to be prostitutes.
The police also seized 15 cell phones, 125 condoms, seven hotel access cards, two tubes of lubricants, one bottle of massage oil, eight towels, eight rolls of tissue papers and cash amounting to RM1,670.
“The prostitution syndicate operated for 24 hours a day, seven days a week and was said to have imposed payments of between RM190 and RM650 depending on the package offered,” he told a media conference at the Johor police contingent headquarters, today.
According to Ayob, to attract clients, numerous methods were used by the suspects including promoting photos of prostitutes through the WeChat, Michat and WhatsApp social media apps as well as by showing photos of the prostitutes on their handphones to men passing by in front of the premises.
In addition, the syndicate also provided prostitute delivery services at delivery rates ranging from RM20 to RM50 depending on the distance.
“The syndicate was also found to be providing 555 notebooks to enable the clients to forego payment to secure a prostitute’s service and settle it later. Most of the clients were foreign nationals and the activities increased on weekends,” he said.
On the prostitutes nabbed, Ayob said some of them had valid social visit passes while the rest had expired visit passes or had entered the country illegally.
“We are still conducting investigations to determine if the syndicate is also carrying out the activity outside Johor, including Singapore,” he said.
All of those detained would be remanded for a week for investigations.
Ayob said the police had detained 1,788 individuals including 1,019 foreigners through 337 operations under Ops Noda between Jan 1 and Aug 31 this year.
Meanwhile, he said, local authorities should work with the police to combat prostitution activities at budget hotels in the state.