Yes, Peruvian Police Really Did Dress as World Cup Mascots to Arrest a Drug Suspect

The claim sounds like something from a comedy sketch: police officers in giant, cheerful sports mascot costumes closing in on a drug suspect. But this one is real. In May 2018, Peruvian anti-drug police in Lima used World Cup mascot costumes as a cover to arrest a suspected drug trafficker — and it worked.

Reuters broke the story, reporting that officers dressed as Zabivaka, the wolf mascot created for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, were able to get close to the suspect without triggering suspicion. The disguise gave them the element of surprise that a standard plainclothes approach might not have.

BBC News and The Guardian both independently confirmed the account. The Guardian noted that the costumes allowed officers to move in before the suspect realized what was happening. The arrest was captured on video, leaving little room for doubt about what took place.

It is worth taking the claim seriously on its own terms: undercover operations using unusual disguises are a real and documented tactic in law enforcement. The novelty here is the specific costume choice, not the underlying strategy. Nothing about this story contradicts how police operations actually work.

Stories like this spread fast precisely because they feel too strange to be true. When something is both funny and real, people share it for the entertainment value — sometimes without checking, and sometimes assuming it must be fabricated. That instinct to doubt the absurd is usually healthy, but in this case the evidence is solid across multiple credible outlets.