KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 32 individuals, including social media influencers, have been nabbed in separate operations for promoting online sex videos, prostitution and illegal gambling sites.
In the first case, 27 social media influencers were arrested in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Negri Sembilan, Johor, Perlis, Kedah and Penang for allegedly promoting illegal online gambling sites.
Bukit Aman CID director Comm Datuk Seri Mohd Shuhaily Mohd Zain said the influencers – 23 women and four men, aged between 21 and 35 – were detained by Bukit Aman anti-vice, gambling and secret societies division (D7).
“They were detained on June 13. Investigations revealed that gambling syndicates hired the suspects due to their large number of followers on social media.
“Each influencer is paid between RM1,500 and RM8,000 for one social media platform, depending on the number of followers.
“We believe each influencer is active on more than two social media platforms,” he told a press conference at Bukit Aman yesterday.
The influencers would promote online gambling sites on top of selling beauty products, Comm Mohd Shuhaily said.
“We believe they were hired by multiple syndicates and they have been active for about a year,” he said.
Also present at the press conference were Bukit Aman CID deputy director Deputy Comm Fadil Marsus and Bukit Aman D7 principal assistant director Senior Asst Comm Mohamad Farouk Eshak. A total of 30 mobile phones were seized in the operation, he said.
Comm Mohd Shuhaily said the police were tracking down the syndicates responsible for hiring the influencers.
“We are investigating under the Common Gaming Houses Act and Section 233 of the Malaysia Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) Act,” he added.
In the second case, four women and one man were detained for promoting prostitution, sex videos and unlicensed sexual stimulants on social media, Comm Mohd Shuhaily said.
“Initial investigations revealed that on top of selling their “products”, the suspects would even have sexual intercourse with their customers for a fee.
“The group is led by a 27-year-old local woman known as ‘Miza Ozawa’, who has a prior criminal record for assaulting her own mother,” he said.
She, along with a 26-year-old Indonesian woman and a 20-year-old Indonesian man, were actors in sexually explicit videos that they sold online, Comm Mohd Shuhaily said.
Two other Malaysian women, aged 17 and 20, were the production crew for their videos.
“We believe they earned about RM20,000 a month as each subscription to the sex videos was priced between RM450 and RM550,” he said, adding that police seized RM30,000 cash, a laptop and several mobile phones in the raid.
“They have been remanded until June 20.”
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