A Peruvian police squad, one of whose members was disguised as a bear, faked a romantic visit on Tuesday, the eve of Valentine's Day, to arrest two female members of a drug trafficking gang in Lima.
Undercover agents discovered that two women were selling cocaine paste and marijuana from a house in the San Martin de Porres neighborhood in the north of the capital.
And a police officer joined the raid
“disguised as a teddy bear for the occasion
,” Colonel Walter Palomino, brigade chief of the national police, explained to AFP.
The officer, dressed as an orange bear and carrying a red balloon and a sign reading
"you are my reason to smile"
, knelt in front of the drug dealers' house.
He then waited for one of the two women to come out of the house, after which she was arrested with the support of other officers.
They then entered the house and apprehended the other woman.
“Surprise operation”
“It was a surprise operation for them to mark the day of love
,” the disguised non-commissioned officer told AFP.
For some time, the police have been trapping criminals with disguises and operations launched on specific dates.
The two women - a mother and her daughter - belong to the gang
“Las tramposas de la droga”
(the drug cheats), according to the police.
Hundreds of packages of drugs were seized from their home.
In 2023, Peruvian authorities seized 21.5 tons of cocaine and dismantled 119 criminal networks linked to drug trafficking, according to the Interior Ministry.
Peru is one of the largest producers of cocaine in the world, with some 400 tonnes per year, according to official figures.
A kilo of cocaine paste sells for at least $380 in Peru, while a kilo of cocaine hydrochloride - the purest drug - sells for around $1,000.
Peru is also, with Bolivia, one of the largest producers of coca leaves - the raw material for cocaine - after Colombia.