The Straits Times – 13 Mar 2000

High drama in raid on Jurong worksite

By Chong Chee Kin

SIX young Thai women were turned over to the police following a security raid to flush out vice and other offenders at a Jurong construction site early on Saturday morning.

       Nearly 50 officers from security agency Safe Technology had gone to the condominium construction site at Jurong West Street 81 at 1.30 am.

      The site contractor, Dragages, had been concerned about drug pushers, women engaged in vice, and immigrants offenders sneaking in, said Safe Technology’s managing director, Mr Henry Siow, who led the operation.

      He told The Straits Times that the two-hour raid began with the officers splitting into two groups, and moving in from the main entrance and the forested area.

       As ST team following the raiding party saw much drama as the officers checked the living quarters.

      One of the Thai women led the officers on a merry chase down from the third floor, before she was finally caught by a woman officer on the second floor.

       A few others bolted from their hiding places, dashed past the officers, darted into other rooms, and locked themselves in.

      But they surrendered when the security officers forced open the doors and surrounded them.

      At the end of the operation, six Thai women were rounded up -three of them were also immigration offenders. They were then handed over to the police.

      A close check of their passports revealed several irregularities. One showed the date of entry into Singapore as March 16. Another passport had ink-smudged pages.

      Mr Siow said the culprits had an elaborate set-up:

     “They would take a taxi, which would drop them off on the road shoulders along the expressway. Then, they would disappear into the forested area beside the road.”

       Unseen to anyone driving past was a small and well-hidden makeshift camp with two crude shelters, 20 m from the road.

       Mr Siow said that the women and the drug pushers would wait at this forest hideout until it was dark before making their way to the Jurong West Street 81 construction site.

      The ST found the tiny forest clearing littered with food-boxes, cans, beer bottles and cardboard sheets.

       A winding, well-trodden path through knee-high undergrowth led from the clearing to the back of the construction site.

      The culprits had gained entry by prising open part of the site's 2-m high perimeter fencing, said Mr Siow. The fence opening led to toilets for nearly 600 construction workers at the site.