PETALING JAYA, MALAYSIA: Thirty-four women, mostly foreigners, were picked up from a budget hotel in Puchong in an anti-vice raid conducted by Bukit Aman yesterday.

The women hid in a secret compartment on the top floor of the three-storey hotel but the police team, led by Federal CID principal assistant director (detention) Senior Asst Comm II Mohd Rodwan Mohd Yusof, sniffed them out.

"We found the women inside the compartment located behind a bed in the room," said SAC Mohd Rodwan.

He said police also arrested two male workers of the hotel and were looking for the operator of the hotel.

Police were checking if the women, who were taken to Bukit Aman, had valid travel documents.

And there was "added bonus" for the raiding vice-squad. Fireworks worth several thousand ringgit were also seized from the hotel.

Meanwhile, a foreign passport syndicate issuing passports to Asian immigrants was smashed following the arrest of five Myanmars, including a 16-year-old girl, last Friday.

The syndicate, believed to be operating here for over three years, accepted only US dollars for the passports which it sold for US$50 (RM162) each.

Sentul police chief Asst Comm Ahmad Sofian Md Yassin said acting on a tip-off, a police team from the district police headquarters raided a double-storey house in Taman Kepong here.

"We arrested four men and a teenage girl, and seized a computer, scanner, printer, stationery and 46 passports of various Asian countries," ACP Ahmad Sofian said, adding that more than 70 passport-size photographs were also recovered.

The syndicate used various Immigration Department documents and rubber stamps to enter fake visas in the passports.

"The passports are genuine as they were issued by the respective countries. The syndicate only changed the information and pictures on it to that of the person buying it.

"Syndicate members also sold documents to illegal immigrants in need of travel and employment documents," ACP Ahmad Sofian said.

It is learnt the syndicate members entered the country as students and tourists, and had valid documents.