A undercover police team dressed as Santa and his elves busted a gang of suspected drug dealers in Peru.
Officers wore the festive disguises to not arouse suspicion before raiding a house in the Surquillo neighbourhood of the capital Lima.
“It being Christmas, a Santa in the street does not attract much attention, and we used this to our advantage for this operation,” said police official David Villanueva.
The group ambled innocently down a street until suddenly they stopped at a house.
One of Santa’s helpers brought out an enormous hammer, broke down the front door and the group forced their way inside.
Police detained four suspects and seized a large quantity of cocaine and marijuana.
The suspects, three men and a woman, initially thought it was a joke, said Villanueva.
The bust was called “The fall of the Chicago Grinch” after the fictional green monster that stole Christmas and Surquillo’s nickname of “Little Chicago” in an allusion to the violent gangs that ran the American city in the 1920s.
