Peru Police Dress as World Cup Mascots to Arrest Suspected Drug Dealer

Police in Lima, Peru, carried out a drug raid on Wednesday in an unusual disguise that quickly went viral online. Officers from Peru’s National Police wore official 2026 World Cup mascot costumes while storming a suspected drug den and arresting one man.

Video from the operation shows officers dressed as Maple the moose, Canada’s mascot, and Clutch the bald eagle, the United States mascot, as they smashed through a metal gate with a battering ram. Once inside, they handcuffed the suspect and uncovered bags containing weapons and drugs that had not yet been identified. The third mascot, Zayu the jaguar of Mexico, did not take part in the raid.

National Police Colonel Carlos Freddy Alcantara Obregon told the Associated Press that the operation was designed to avoid alerting the suspect. “Thanks to the intelligence work carried out by the team, we were able to establish that the person we were going to arrest is a die-hard football fan, who lives and breathes the World Cup. Therefore, we arranged for the officers to be dressed as World Cup mascots, in order to get close to him without raising suspicion and make the arrest,” he said.

The Lima unit, known as the “Green Squad,” has drawn attention before for similarly themed operations. In 2025, its Valentine’s Day mission involved officers in capybara costumes, and on Halloween they dressed as Marvel superheroes. The unit’s formal role is fighting micro-trafficking and other low-level drug crimes across the city. Police did not release the suspect’s name, but social media posts identified him as an alleged gang member, and videos showed him being led away in handcuffs beside Maple and Clutch, whose mascot heads had already been put back on.