Watch: when Santa Claus caught 4 drug traffickers

This Santa Claus in Peru didn't enter singing HO! HO! HO! quietly crawling down a chimney like the good old jolly man one reads about in fables. He doesn't live on the North Pole either. His entrance was accompanied with a BAMM! He breaks down a door, holds those on 'naughty list' by the collar and takes them to the police van.

At least that's what happened when police staged an undercover sting operation against a house of suspected drug traffickers, filming the raid in a video that has gone viral online.

It shows the lead officer, dressed in a padded Santa suit to confuse the suspects, swinging a sledgehammer to break down the door.

Wearing a giant mask of old Saint Nick or Father Christmas, he proceeds to help his colleagues round up a group of men inside and leads them out in handcuffs.

"The best gift we can give people is a little security," police colonel Jorge Angulo told America TV after the raid.

The Santa cop is a member of a special undercover unit in Lima that patrols the capital's streets and carries out raids in disguise.

Other costumes include street sweeper, homeless person and hawker.

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