Sefton police teams had a pleasant surprise when, on October 7 , they intercepted a van filled with illicit substances, many of which contained a rather unusual inscription: "Pokémon GO".
The illegal substances we are going to talk about have a "Pokémon GO" inscription stuck on their packaging, but they are in no way linked to Nintendo or The Pokémon Company/Niantic. The criminals behind these products have illegally used the intellectual property of the three companies.
Illegal Pokémon GO products?
This is what the police discovered in Sefton, a small town in the west of England, between Manchester and Liverpool. When an individual in a van did not stop, a mad chase started. After having succeeded in intercepting the van but not the bandits, the police opened it to discover kilos of illicit substances , with inscriptions "Pokémon GO", or "KFC".
Undoubtedly a technique of bandits to pass the goods off as Pokémon goodies, or to try to sell their goods more easily... in vain. Criminals are still at very high risk for exploiting the intellectual property of Nintendo, Niantic and The Pokémon Company (of course) without their authorization.
"Pokémon GO" merchandise found in suspect's house
Sefton Police teams appear to have had a good sense of it as they followed a suspect's tracks fairly quickly... to his home where they found £20,000 of Class B goods, £5,000 in cash , but also all kinds of products clearly incriminating the man.
He was therefore arrested for refusing to comply, dangerous driving, possession of Class "B" drugs, suspected possession of illicit goods with intent to supply, possession of criminal property, and possession of an offensive weapon.
Here is a rather unusual story, which however ends rather well with the arrest of the criminal in question. In any case, we weren't ready to hear about illicit products inscribed "Pokémon GO", so strong is the contrast with the family and innocent image of the license. This will surprise all fans of Nintendo's flagship license!
We had the chance to try a few chapters of Bayonetta 3, the next beat 'em up from Platinum Games and published by Nintendo. Discover our opinion on these few hours of play, before the full test a little later in the month.
