Police bust sex barber’s for foreigners in Ho Chi Minh City

Police have detained 34-year-old woman, Tang Thi Thu Trang, who provided prostitutes to foreigners at her barbershop in District 3, Ho Chi Minh City.

From a tip-off from the public, police on Monday afternoon conducted a raid on Trang’s barbershop at 12A Ba Vi Street, District 3.

At the time of inspection, there was nothing strange on the ground floor of the shop but on the second floor, police caught a young woman making love to a Chinese national in a well-furnished room.

Police escorted Trang, a native of southern An Giang Province, and her nine female employees to the office for questioning.

Trang later confessed to investigators that her barber’s offered sex workers only to foreigners in the past two years.

With such an act, Trang will be charged with prostitution brokerage, police said.

Prostitutes told police that they charged their foreign guests VND500,000 (US$24) per session and Trang got VND200,000 of the amount.

The ground floor of the barbershop was designed as a real hairdresser’s, but on the floors above, there are separated rooms furnished with beds with mattresses like hotel rooms to serve prostitution activities.

Every day before the raid, many foreigners would come to the shop to enjoy haircut performed by ‘hairdressers’ who would then offer to have sex with them.   

This barbershop has been fined for operating without a license but it continued to operate despite warnings from local authorities, the district police said.

A similar case was uncovered on June 14 at two hotels in District 1, where police cracked down on a ring that provided sex workers to foreign expats in the city’s downtown.

Police seized nine members of the ring, which targeted foreigners at restaurants and bars and was ready to serve their sexual demands by sending prostitutes to their hotel rooms according to mutual agreements on price, time and other conditions.

On that day, police forces also raided four bars and restaurants at 35, 37, 49 and 51 Hai Ba Trung Street, Ben Nghe Ward and then escorted 53 people to the station.

Through the ring, sex workers served foreigners only at a price of at least US$100 per session in rooms chosen by the ring. Sex workers received 50 percent of the payment and the rest went to the ring, brokers and others involved.