Police in World Cup mascot suits arrest Lima dealer holding 209 g of marijuana
Grupo Terna officers of Peru's National Police entered a Las Flores house in San Juan de Lurigancho on 11 June 2026 dressed as the 2026 World Cup mascots and arrested Carlos Cabrera Heredia, 48. The raid also seized 209 grams of marijuana alongside 2,524 ketes of coca paste, a loaded firearm and cash.
🇵🇪 Urbanización Las Flores, San Juan de Lurigancho, Lima · Peru
Peru’s National Police identified the detained man as 48-year-old Carlos
Cabrera, known as alias Pichichi.[1]Officers of the Grupo Terna of the
Escuadrón Verde captured the suspected small-scale drug seller in the
urbanización Las Flores in San Juan de Lurigancho.[2]Two officers dressed as
Clutch and Maple, the official mascots of the 2026 World Cup, to approach the
suspect without raising suspicion while he watched the tournament opening at
home.[1]Officers broke open the house door with a metal battering ram when it
became necessary and entered with colleagues to complete the arrest.[1]Police
said intelligence work showed Cabrera was a devoted football fan who would be
home watching the World Cup opening.[1]
Inside the house police seized209 grams of marijuana.[1]Officers also found
wrappers with marijuana and cash whose amount was not specified.[3]The same
search seized 2,524 ketes of coca paste alongside the marijuana.[2]
Police said Cabrera had two prior prison terms for the same offence totalling
about nine years.[1]The detainee and all seized evidence were placed at the
disposal of the Depincri of San Juan de Lurigancho for preliminary
investigation.[3]In Peru microcommercialisation is punished with three to
seven years when a person is found with 5 to 50 grams of coca paste.[1]
Photos and video
A man is escorted down a street by two officers wearing the Clutch eagle and Maple moose mascot costumes, with uniformed police in the background. Photo: AFPPhoto details
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Source: InfobaeA man seen from behind putting on oversized mascot gloves, with a brown-and-red mascot head on a chair. Photo: AFPPhoto details
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Source: InfobaeGloved hands cut open newspaper-wrapped packages on a mattress while a person in an orange-and-red mascot costume stands nearby. Photo: AFPPhoto details
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Source: InfobaeAn officer in the Maple moose costume looks out from a dark doorway beside the green-and-blue Escuadrón Verde emblem. Photo: AFPPhoto details
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Source: InfobaeA television grab of the operation in San Juan de Lurigancho with officers in the 2026 World Cup mascot costumes. Photo: Video capture / América TVPhoto details
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Arrested
1
Cannabis
209 g
Agency type
Police
Cannabis
Herbal cannabis
Setting
Home, Prison
Case stage
Under investigation
Sources
Infobaeinfobae.comESPolicías de Perú se disfrazan de las mascotas del Mundial 2026 para capturar a peligroso vendedor de drogas
RPPrpp.peESSJL: agentes Terna disfrazados de muñecos del Mundial capturaron a presunto vendedor de drogas
La Repúblicalarepublica.peESDisfrazados de mascotas del Mundial: Grupo Terna captura a comercializador de droga e incauta 2.500 ketes de cocaína
Open questions the AI reported
No article gives a separate date for the raid; 11 June 2026 comes from RPP's update timestamp, and 12 June is the publication date of the other accounts.
Accounts differ on the coca-paste count, from 2,500 to 2,524 ketes; it is not a cannabis figure and is excluded from the totals here.
The marijuana was reported as 209 grams in the Infobae and RPP accounts; La República, El Comercio and Exitosa give no weight for it, only wrappers.
No value was published for the marijuana or the other drugs.
Only the loaded firearm and rounds were reported; their make and calibre were not published.
No charges, custody ruling or court outcome was reported; prosecutors were still supervising the investigation.
Most images of this operation are credited to AFP and released through news outlets; they are linked, not copied.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in El Comercio: Officers found a firearm hidden in a bedroom drawer.
Anti-drug police in Iquitos stopped a motokar in Punchana district and found a backpack with ten packages of suspected marijuana, then detained the driver and his passenger. Both are under investigation for illicit drug trafficking, and the exact weight of the drug had not been established.
Police detained five men aged 22 to 26 during a raid on a building in the Unicreto estate in Nuevo Chimbote, Áncash, and found about 125 grams of marijuana alongside 45 bags of tusi, 19 ecstasy pills and ketamine. The group was accused of making and selling synthetic drugs in nightclubs, and the case was passed to the Public Prosecutor's Office.
Peruvian National Police detained two people, aged 23 and 74, in the Santa Isabel neighbourhood of Chachapoyas, Amazonas, on 4 November 2026. Officers found dental equipment, anaesthetics, phones, cash and a sealed bag of seeds suspected to be cannabis sativa, and handed the pair to the police criminal investigation division as they investigate illegal dentistry and possible drug trafficking.
Police arrested three suspected members of two criminal gangs in operations in Ventanilla, Callao, and San Miguel, Lima, the Interior Ministry said. One of them, Jesús Ever Morán Villanueva, 20, was found with a bag holding about 500 grams of marijuana when he was detained in San Miguel.
