SINGAPORE – A clampdown on criminal activities over the festive period that also targeted errant motorists and public entertainment outlets has led to more than 500 arrests.
In a release on Dec 27, the police said officers from across the force, and their counterparts at multiple agencies, had conducted more than 1,400 operations from Nov 22.
The year-end operations are to deter unlawful activities during the festive period, and target a wide spectrum of offences, including drink driving, vaping, drugs, illegal employment and immigration violations.
Officers checked more than 15,900 people during the operations and arrested 546 of them.
A total of 1,771 people aged 15 to 88, consisting of 1,161 men and 610 women, are being investigated, the police added.
The raids at public entertainment outlets followed the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) announcement on Dec 1 that it will be scrapping the Work Permit (Performing Artiste) scheme from June 1, 2026.
This was after widespread abuse of the scheme was uncovered, with syndicates using shell public entertainment outlets to hire foreign performing artistes who were later found working at other public entertainment outlets as “freelance hostesses”.
Operations from Dec 3 to 6 targeted illicit activities at such outlets and at massage establishments, residential units and commercial units.
A total of 10 men and 37 women, aged between 20 and 88, are being investigated in relation to the activities.
Two massage establishments and two public entertainment outlets are also under investigation.
The media on Dec 20 accompanied the authorities on an operation targeting public entertainment outlets in Macpherson Road on Dec 20, where a 43-year-old man was found with a vape.
