Peruvian police officers disguised themselves as 2026 World Cup mascots to conduct a drug raid in Lima on Wednesday, in what may be the most inventive law enforcement operation of the tournament so far.
A video posted to the police’s official TikTok account showed officers dressed as Clutch the Bald Eagle and Maple the Moose breaking through a gate with a battering ram before arresting a man in a white vest. The footage also showed officers recovering packets of white powder and a firearm, with the caption reading: “World Cup Mode: Operation ends with the fall of Pichichi.”
Colonel Carlos Fredy Alcantara Obregon, head of the police’s Green Squad, explained the thinking behind the unusual approach. “Thanks to the intelligence work carried out by the team, we were able to establish that the person we were about to arrest was a die-hard football fan, living and breathing the World Cup fever,” he told the Associated Press. “So we proceeded to disguise my Green Squad personnel as World Cup mascots in order to approach him without arousing suspicion and make the arrest.”
It is not the first time Peruvian police have used creative disguises during operations. On Valentine’s Day in 2025, an officer dressed as a capybara wearing a turtle-shaped backpack to carry out an arrest in a separate drug probe in Lima. Officers have also previously posed as Marvel superheroes during raids.
Peru did not qualify for this year’s World Cup, finishing ninth among the ten CONMEBOL nations. Their last appearance at the tournament came in 2018.
