Maple, Zayu, and Clutch are the World Cup mascots for 2026. Photograph: Eloisa Sanchez/Reuters
Clutch Time: Canadian and US World Cup Mascots Feature in Peruvian Drugs Raid
Lima police dressed as mascots in a raid on a suspect. Zayu the Jaguar was left out of the police operation.
While tensions between Canada and the United States have risen in recent years as Donald Trump made threats to turn his northern neighbour into a 51st state of America, there has been some mutual cooperation in crime fighting. Earlier this week, Clutch the Bald Eagle and Maple the Moose – the mascots for the United States and Canada respectively at this year’s World Cup – helped Peruvian police in a drugs raid.
Officers in Lima dressed as the mascots broke through a gate before arresting a suspect.
“Thanks to the intelligence work carried out by the team, we were able to establish that the person we were about to arrest was a die-hard football fan, living and breathing the World Cup fever,” Colonel Carlos Fredy Alcántara Obregón, head of the police’s Green Squad, told the Associated Press. “So we proceeded to disguise my Green Squad personnel as World Cup mascots in order to approach him without arousing suspicion and make the arrest.”
Clutch and Maple would appear to be the perfect candidates for the drugs raid, even though they are fictional characters and do not have visas to work in Peru. According to Fifa, Clutch “leads by action – rallying teammates, lifting spirits and turning every challenge into an opportunity to rise higher” making him an ideal leader in high-pressure situations such as drug raids. Maple, meanwhile, is “a street style-loving artist” meaning the moose can blend effortlessly into Lima’s demi-monde.
The other World Cup mascot, Zayu the Jaguar, doesn’t work Wednesdays, so was unavailable for the raid.
