It’s the type of story that themes nightmares, and provides chilling plot lines to Lifetime network films starring, but not limited to, Jennifer Love Hewitt: a group of women were lured to Malaysia with promises of being part of a beauty pageant, but found themselves in the throes of a sex ring.
When the nine women arrived to Malaysia, they were informed that the pageant they had traveled for was cancelled, and were then taken to a hotel room where they were held hostage.
Times LIVE of South Africa reports that the women were moments away from being sent off to different countries as part of a sex trafficking syndicate, when one, a 27-year-old from Free State province, was able to ring her brother back home to alert him of the situation.
The brother’s swift action to contact police, who then contacted the head of Interpol in South Africa, Scott Naidoo, who in turn contacted the Malaysian authorities, meant that the women were all rescued in time.
Police Minister Mbalula Fikile held a press conference back home in South Africa on the matter, and issued a warning to women in the region to be weary of ‘pageants’ and other circumstances that seem “too good to be true.”
One of the women, a Zimbabwean, is suspected as being part of the trafficking syndicate, and was arrested by Malayisan police.
CoconutsKL is following the story, and will update, should more developments arise.
