Lima police conduct drug raid disguised as World Cup mascots
Officers from Peru's National Police burst into a residence in Lima wearing costumes of FIFA World Cup mascots to detain an alleged drug trafficker.
Lima police conduct drug raid disguised as World Cup mascots
Officers from Peru's National Police burst into a residence in Lima on Wednesday, dressed in costumes of FIFA World Cup mascots, to carry out an operation against drug trafficking.
During the raid, the officers—dressed as Maple the Moose and Clutch the Bald Eagle—knocked down a metal door with a battering ram. Once inside, they handcuffed an alleged trafficker and discovered bags containing unidentified weapons and drugs. Two officers lost their felt heads in the process, although the operation proceeded as planned.
Colonel Carlos Fredy Alcántara Obregón of Peru's National Police explained to the Associated Press that the intelligence team determined that the target was a football enthusiast. "Thanks to intelligence work, we established that the person we were going to arrest was a football enthusiast, caught up in World Cup fever," he stated. "That is why we decided to disguise my personnel from the Green Squad as World Cup mascots to approach without raising suspicion and carry out the arrest."
Lima's Green Squad had previously drawn attention with disguised raids. In a Valentine's Day mission in 2025, officers wore capybara costumes, and in another Halloween operation they dressed as Marvel superheroes. The official function of this unit is to combat "micro-trafficking" and other crimes related to low-level drugs in the city.
Police did not reveal the identity of the detainee, who appeared in videos walking handcuffed down the street next to Maple and Clutch, with the mascot heads already in place. Posts on the institution's social media accounts identified the man as an alleged member of a criminal gang.
Source: The New York Times
Source: Google News MT — Crime (en)