ANN/THE STRAITS TIMES – The naughty list in 2024 is looking to be extra long after more than 1,800 people were hauled up by the Singaporean police in the past month in one of the biggest anti-crime blitzes since the COVID-19 pandemic.
More than 600 of those hauled up have been arrested so far.
The blitz targeted a spectrum of criminal activity, including vice, illegal gambling, vaping, drink driving, drugs and riding of non-compliant personal mobility devices (PMDs).
To clamp down on crime during the year-end festivities, the police mobilised more than 2,600 officers to conduct checks on some 13,200 people from November 16 to December 16.
They conducted more than 1,180 operations during the four-week period, hauling up for investigations 1,873 people, aged 15 to 85. They comprised 1,257 men and 616 women.
Of these, at least 610 people have been arrested so far.
The police officers were supported by their counterparts from the Central Narcotics Bureau, Singapore Civil Defence Force, Immigration and Checkpoints Authority, Health Sciences Authority, National Environment Agency, Singapore Customs, Land Transport Authority (LTA) and Singapore Food Agency.
From November 20 to 23, the police arrested 25 women and three men after conducting enforcement checks at multiple massage establishments, hotels and public entertainment outlets in the areas of Balestier, Thomson Road, Robertson Quay, Selegie Road, Orchard Road and Whampoa.
More than SGD4,300 in cash, several mobile phones, gambling-related paraphernalia, seven vapes and four packets of duty-unpaid cigarettes were seized as case exhibits.
On November 22, an enforcement operation in Pioneer’s Jalan Papan area saw 15 men caught for vapes, 17 men caught for possessing duty-unpaid cigarettes, and one man arrested for selling duty-unpaid cigarettes.
From November 25 to 30, officers targeted illicit activities at massage establishments, public entertainment outlets, private residences and hotels in Chinatown, Little India, Boat Quay and Bugis.
