A cocaine dealer in England accepted the usual forms of payment from customers: cash and bank transfers. Then there were the Pokémon cards.
Kent Police said Jack Young-Larter went further than accepting collectible cards from people who owed him money. He asked substance users to steal sealed Pokémon products to help settle their drug debts.
The 26-year-old Maidstone man has now lost both his freedom and his collection. He was sentenced to three years and four months in prison on Sept. 17 after pleading guilty to offenses involving the supply of cocaine and cannabis and possession of criminal property.
Police also obtained a deprivation order covering the cash and trading cards seized during the investigation, meaning the collection will not be returned to him.
Cards On Account
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Officers searched Young-Larter’s London Road home on May 1 while investigating cocaine and cannabis supply in Maidstone.
They seized two phones, nearly 110 grams of cannabis and more than 25 grams of cocaine, along with scales and empty deal bags. Around $2,674 in cash and a box of rare collectible cards, police considered highly valuable, were also found.
The phones gave police a closer look at how the operation worked.
Messages were consistent with Young-Larter marketing and supplying cocaine and cannabis, while videos showed him stashing packets of drugs for customers to retrieve later. Other messages referenced customers paying in cash, through bank transfers and with Pokémon trading cards.
Police said some of those cards were not simply handed over from existing collections. Young-Larter asked people with drug debts to steal collectible Pokémon products to pay down what they owed.
A Hot Commodity
The choice makes more sense against the extraordinary demand surrounding the Pokémon Trading Card Game.
In a May 2026 availability update, Pokémon acknowledged that “very high demand” had made certain products difficult for fans to buy. The company said it was printing affected products as quickly as possible and at maximum capacity, while continuing to reprint sold-out merchandise.
Pokémon Center has also used virtual queues during periods of heavy traffic to manage demand around releases.
That rush extends beyond unopened boxes and booster packs.
Professional Sports Authenticator, one of the major companies that grades collectible cards, said it graded about 2 million cards in 2020 and more than 19 million in 2025. In May, PSA announced another $200 million investment in grading infrastructure as it tried to keep up with what it called a sustained collecting boom.
Those numbers do not establish the value of Young-Larter’s particular collection. Kent Police did not publish a valuation for the box seized from his home.
They do help explain why sealed Pokémon products and sought-after cards can be treated as valuable property rather than just children’s collectibles.
Collection Confiscated
Young-Larter was charged with being concerned in the supply of cocaine, being concerned in the supply of cannabis, and possession of criminal property involving the seized cash and trading cards.
He pleaded guilty to all three counts.
At sentencing in Maidstone Crown Court, Young-Larter argued that his family commitments should be taken into account, according to Kent Police. Detective Constable Emily Hill said the judge rejected that argument.
The deprivation order means the approximately £2,000 and the card collection seized during the case will not be returned.
Hill finished the police statement with a line tailored to the unusual evidence sitting at the center of the case: when it comes to drug dealers operating on Kent’s streets, she said officers are “on a mission to catch them all.”