Hong Kong police have raided a Pokémon card store suspected of being used as a drug storage facility, arresting a man and seizing suspected crystal meth worth HK$10 million (US$1.3 million).
Police said on Tuesday that the 37-square-metre store on the upper floor of Hung Hom was open to the public, especially Pokémon fans, including teenagers and children, who frequently visited the store and even participated in card games.
Inspector Liong Chun-hin of the Narcotics Bureau said investigations showed that the seized drugs were not distributed or sold to customers or to people inside the store playing cards. He added that no teenagers or children were involved in the drug smuggling activities.
“But keeping such a large quantity of the drug in a place that teenagers and children can visit is irresponsible and scandalous behavior that also increases the potential risk of teenagers and children accidentally coming into contact with illegal drugs,” he said.
After an extensive investigation, FBI agents intercepted a 28-year-old man and conducted a search outside the Hung Hom store on Monday.
Officers discovered 5 kg of a substance that appeared to be crystal meth, also known as ice, among his belongings.
The man was taken back to the store, where officers discovered another 16 kg of suspected crystal meth in a staff rest room.
According to police, the value of the seized 21 kilograms of drugs is estimated at HK$10 million.
The suspect, one of the shop owners, was arrested on suspicion of trafficking in dangerous drugs, a crime punishable by up to life imprisonment.
Liong said preliminary investigations showed that the drug warehouse had been in operation for about a month.
He said he believed the suspect was recruited by a drug syndicate with promises of money and used his store as a front for operating the drug den to avoid detection.
According to police, the 28-year-old will likely be charged with drug trafficking and will appear before the Kowloon City Court on Wednesday.
In the first five months of this year, total seizures of the five main illicit drugs – cannabis, cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and ketamine – increased by 27 percent to 4.7 tonnes from 3.7 tonnes in the same period last year.
Last October, customs officials seized the largest quantity of suspected crystal meth in solid form to date, discovering 1.1 tonnes worth HK$640 million in a shipment of snail shells from Mexico.
In October 2022, Customs seized HK$1.1 billion worth of liquid meth hidden in cartons of coconut water from Mexico, the largest local shipment of the illegal drug.
