A Peruvian police squad used an agent dressed as Father Christmas to infiltrate an unsafe neighborhood outside Lima and bust a small drug ring, authorities said on Saturday.
The undercover operation led to the arrest of two men selling forms of cocaine and marijuana in a house in Huaral, about 70km north of the Peruvian capital.
Agents “disguised themselves as Santa Claus to go unnoticed in this dangerous neighborhood,” said Colonel Walter Palomino, head of the National Police Green Squadron.
Photo: Reuters
“The strategy was successful. Christmas came to the Evil Reindeer,” he said, using a seasonal nickname for the illicit gang.
CHRISTMAS SURPRISE
An officer disguised as the white-bearded figure from the North Pole broke down a house door with a large sledgehammer and arrested one of the suspects.
Instead of offering jolly cheer, Santa and his helpers arrested two men and seized hundreds of packets of cocaine paste and marijuana, said police, who have yet to announce a specific amount or value of the drugs.
One of those captured was presented to the media under an alias: “The Grinch,” after a fictional character created by US children’s author Dr Seuss.
POLICE TRADITION
For years, police in the South American nation — one of the world’s biggest cocaine producers — have been using disguises during anti-drug operations launched on special dates.
On Oct. 31, police dressed up as horror characters for Halloween and arrested two alleged members of the Balboa clan, a drug gang.
Last year before Christmas, police in Lima dressed as Santa and his elves conducted a similar operation, arresting four suspects and seizing 6,000 packets of cocaine paste.
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
UNSCHEDULED VISIT: ‘It’s a very bulky new neighbor, but it will soon go away,’ said Johan Helberg of the 135m container ship that run aground near his house A man in Norway awoke early on Thursday to discover a huge container ship had run aground a stone’s throw from his fjord-side house — and he had slept through the commotion. For an as-yet unknown reason, the 135m NCL Salten sailed up onto shore just meters from Johan Helberg’s house in a fjord near Trondheim in central Norway. Helberg only discovered the unexpected visitor when a panicked neighbor who had rung his doorbell repeatedly to no avail gave up and called him on the phone. “The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don’t like to open,” Helberg told television
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000
RSS