On August 19, Hong Kong police raided a Pokemon TCG shop that allegedly contained 16kg of methamphetamine in the designated “staff-only area.”
As reported by the South China Morning Post, this Pokemon TCG shop in the residential district Hung Hom would host tournaments, and trading excursions, with groups of children and teenagers playing the beloved TCG together. Though police confirmed that none of these children or teenagers were involved in the purchasing of said drugs, it was a surprise to Hong Kong Narcotics Bureau Inspector Liong Chun-Hin.
“Storing such a large quantity of narcotics in a place where teenagers and children can visit is irresponsible and disgraceful behavior that also heightens the possible risk of teenagers and children mistakenly encountering illegal drugs,” Chun-Hin told the local media.
Chun-Hin explains that the upstairs Pokemon TCG store had been operating as a storage unit for more than a month before the police had pinned down its location.
In April of last year, The Pokemon Company spoke of a printing-company worker who had allegedly stolen a stack of rare cards from the Fusion Strike set to sell to his local game shop. This has been considered the “largest return of stolen property to date” in the trading card game’s history, according to The Pokemon Company.