Just a few days before Christmas, in Lima, a Peruvian police officer dressed as the Grinch, the infamous antagonist of Dr. Seuss’s ‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas’, carried out a dramatic raid in the capital. Three suspects from a suspected drug trafficking ring were arrested during the raid, which took place in the San Bartolo area, and are said to belong to the “La Mafia de San Bartolo” gang. This was made known to the public through a video by the Peruvian National Police. The police officer, fully dressed in a Grinch costume, used a sledgehammer to break down the door during the raid.
Watch:
A police officer dressed up as the Grinch took down a massive drug operation in Peru 😭 pic.twitter.com/0gTRwx3heQ
— Daily Loud (@DailyLoud) December 24, 2024
After entering, the team found there illicit drugs and other trafficked materials. On platform X, under the social media post section, law enforcement shared about the success of the operation: “In an ingenuous operation, agents of the Green Squad arrested the aliases La Reina del Sur, La Coneja, and Pote.” A police report described the gang as being “dedicated to drug dealing.“During the raid, authorities confiscated several drugs.
Video footage catches the Grinch-dressed police officer searching the house and finding the illegal drugs. According to the U.S. State Department, Peru is the world’s second-largest producer of cocaine after Colombia, and most of its cocaine is either consumed within the country or smuggled to Europe, the United States, and East Asia.
This creative way of performing law enforcement is not novel in Peru. In October 2023, police wear costumes like those of horror movie celebrities, including Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees, to apprehend suspected drug dealers in another raid. Peru’s National Police have frequently employed innovative tactics to undermine the functions of drug trafficking organizations, testifying to their continued drive to eliminate the drug industry.
