When law enforcement agencies around the world brainstorm undercover tactics, most land on plainclothes detectives and unmarked vehicles. The National Police of Peru apparently had a different meeting. This week, officers from Lima’s Green Squadron executed a drug raid while dressed head-to-toe as Clutch the Bald Eagle and Maple the Moose, the official mascots of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The operation was filmed, posted to the department’s official TikTok account, and has since gone viral in the way that only the most genuinely absurd things do.
The target was a 48-year-old man named Carlos Cabrera, and the reason for the costume choice is almost funnier than the costumes themselves. Col. Carlos Alcántara, head of the Green Squadron, said intelligence work revealed that Cabrera was a devoted football fan who had gotten swept up in World Cup fever.
Rather than spook him with a conventional approach, they decided to use that enthusiasm against him. Two officers squeezed into the oversized mascot suits, approached the property without raising suspicion, and then produced a metal battering ram to take out the gate. It was, by any measure, a plan that should not have worked. It did.
The footage shows the mascot heads bouncing and tumbling off the officers mid-breach as they rushed the suspect, which somehow makes the whole sequence even more effective as viewing material. Later in the clip, the agents reattach their giant cartoon heads and pose for photos with the arrested Cabrera, which reads less like a police department and more like a very confusing theme park experience. The haul was serious, though: police reported recovering 2,524 packets of cocaine base along with a firearm.
The timing added another layer. The raid took place on Thursday during the opening match of the 2026 World Cup between Mexico and South Africa, which means Cabrera may have been glued to a screen when a bald eagle and a moose knocked his door in.
Peru, notably, did not qualify for this year’s tournament, but their police force has made it abundantly clear they intend to participate in World Cup season regardless.
This Is Not Peru’s First Rodeo in a Costume
Anyone tempted to write this off as a one-time stunt should know that the Green Squadron has been running costumed operations for years. On Valentine’s Day in 2025, an officer dressed as a capybara wearing a turtle-shaped backpack helped execute a drug arrest in Lima.
Before that, in November 2022, officers dressed as Spider-Man, Captain America, Thor, and Black Widow raided a home in the San Juan de Lurigancho neighborhood, posing as performers promoting a Halloween concert before breaking down a steel door and arresting four people. That operation was officially named “Marvel” by the department, which shows a level of commitment to the bit that is hard not to respect.
The logic behind it is actually straightforward police work. Col. Pedro Rojas of the Green Squadron has explained that the disguises allow units to approach targets unnoticed, using familiar or festive appearances to blend in and catch suspects off guard.
In dense urban neighborhoods where locals can often spot law enforcement vehicles or plainclothes officers, a giant moose costume may genuinely read as noise rather than threat. Strange as it sounds, the element of surprise is exactly the point.
What Was Actually Seized and What It Means
While the visuals are difficult to take seriously, the underlying bust is not minor. Peruvian law states that a person found in possession of between five and 50 grams of cocaine base can face three to seven years in prison. Over 2,500 individual packets recovered from a single location indicates a distribution-level operation, not a personal supply. The gun found alongside the drugs suggests Cabrera was not an incidental player either.
Peru has a persistent drug trafficking problem, much of it tied to coca cultivation in rural regions that feeds both domestic markets and international supply chains. As recently as June 2025, Peruvian police showcased a separate haul of 5.5 tonnes of seized drugs following anti-narcotics operations across multiple regions, with authorities noting the material was primarily destined for Europe and North America. The Green Squadron’s flashier street-level operations are one piece of a much larger ongoing enforcement effort.
The World Cup Mascots, Briefly Explained
For those unfamiliar with the 2026 tournament’s branding, FIFA introduced three mascots to represent the three host nations. Clutch the Bald Eagle represents the United States, Maple the Moose represents Canada, and Zayu the Jaguar represents Mexico.
Peru’s police department deployed two of the three. Zayu the Jaguar, symbolizing Mexico, was conspicuously absent from the raid. Whether the Green Squadron simply could not source the third costume or whether Zayu is being saved for a future operation remains, at this point, unknown.
The 2026 World Cup is the first to use a 48-team format and the first to span three countries simultaneously, making it the largest tournament in the competition’s history. Peru, finishing ninth out of ten CONMEBOL qualifying teams, will watch from home. Their police department, however, appears to have found its own way to stay involved in the festivities.