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High-class brothels parading as health centres raided
At least 36 women and girls in their early teens were arrested by police during a series of raids on upmarket brothels in Colombo and its suburbs in recent weeks. The raids were carried out on plush residences located at Mount Lavinia, Maradana, Horana, Kirulapone and Kalubowila where the brothels functioned cleverly disguised as health centres dealing in local native treatment, a senior police officer said.
The brothels catered to the rich and the women included both locals and foreigners mainly from former states of the old Soviet Union, Officer in Charge of the Walane Anti-Vice Division Inspector (IP) Duminda Balasuriya told the Sunday Times. He said that the brothels detected during the raids were located in close proximity to a girl’s school, opposite the Kirulapone Police station, adjoining the Colombo South General Hospital in Kalubowila and one at the Technical College junction in Maradana.
During a raid on a brothel located at Hotel Road, Mount Lavinia and operated by a woman it was revealed that clients were provided the opportunity to make their selection on skype after interviewing the woman at the other end. Thereafter they are told to make a cash advance and the meeting takes place at a later hour at a given location. Assisting the woman were mainly three-wheeler drivers who worked as pimps and also on her payroll were muscle men to deal with unruly clients,” IP Balasuriya said.
According to investigations clients at this brothel were charged something like between Rs. 25,000 to 30,000 depending on the duration, for a local sex worker, and Rs. 50,000 for a foreigner. “The woman raked in something like Rs. 300,000 on a daily basis,” he said.
The woman paid a monthly rent of Rs. 50,000 for the building that is situated alongside tourist guest houses. In another incident police also busted a mobile brothel during a search of a luxury car driven by a woman during the early hours of the morning at Slave Island. At the time of the interception there were four other women occupants in the vehicle and they turned out to be sex workers, IP Balasuriya added.
The woman had been in business for the past 15 years where she supplied female sex workers to clients with the assistance of hotel employees, security guards employed at the city’s casinos and mostly three wheeler drivers who managed the transportation, he said.
The woman had also hired goons who dealt with clients failing to pay up on time. These persons are taken to certain locations, assaulted and later robbed of their cash and other belongings. “It is two such victims who tipped off the police on the woman’s activities and later went onto provide valuable information,” IP Balasuriya added.He explained that the bulk of the women drawn into this vice circle were from the outstations and some were even from the apparel industry in the free trade zones. Each woman earned something like Rs.10, 000 to 15,000 per night depending on customer demand, he said.
He added that more and more sex workers and their handlers were now known to be spreading further into the suburbs and even the outstations where the demand was on the increase and in certain cases their operations were protected by influential individuals.
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