In one of the more bizarre tactical maneuvers of the year, undercover police officers in Peru successfully executed a targeted narcotics raid by disguising themselves as official 2026 FIFA World Cup mascots.

Members of the Peruvian National Police’s specialized Green Squad donned giant, felt suits of “Maple the Moose” and “Clutch the Bald Eagle” to infiltrate a neighborhood in the capital city of Lima on Wednesday.

The undercover team targeted a suspected gang member and drug trafficker who had been evading authorities. A third official tournament mascot, “Zayu the Jaguar,” reportedly did not take part in the tactical operation.

Exploiting ‘World Cup Fever’

The creative operational plan was hatched after intelligence officers discovered that the target was an absolute football fanatic heavily swept up in the global tournament’s energy.

“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,” Colonel Carlos Fredy Alcántara Obregón, head of the Green Squad, 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.”

A video later posted to the national police department’s official TikTok account captured the surreal moment the two oversized forest creatures marched down a residential street.

Despite both officers temporarily losing their giant mascot heads mid-stride, they successfully breached a metal gate with a heavy steel battering ram.

Once inside the property, the costumed officers quickly subdued and handcuffed the suspect—identified by police social media channels as an alleged gang member nicknamed “Pichichi”—who was wearing a simple white vest.

The tactical squad subsequently searched the premises, uncovering firearms, a stash of weapons, and numerous packets of an unidentified white powder.

A Pattern of Thematic Raids

While a mascot-led raid sounds completely unprecedented, it is actually part of an ongoing, highly calculated operational pattern for Lima’s Green Squad.

The unit, which is explicitly tasked with combating localized “micro-trafficking” and neighborhood drug rings, frequently utilizes holiday and pop-culture disguises to blend into urban environments.

During a Valentine’s Day operation in 2025, an undercover officer successfully lured a suspect out by dressing up as a giant capybara sporting a turtle-shaped backpack.

In an earlier mission during Halloween, the unit completely bypassed neighborhood suspicions by conducting a series of property raids dressed entirely as popular Marvel superheroes.

The suspect was later filmed being paraded down the street in handcuffs, flanked closely by the fully re-assembled Maple the Moose and Clutch the Bald Eagle.

Ironically, the theatrical operation comes during a cycle where Peru’s national football team failed to qualify for the World Cup entirely, finishing a disappointing ninth out of ten teams in the CONMEBOL regional standings.