LIMA: Happy Valentine’s Day, you’re under arrest!
Two Peruvian women accused of drug trafficking got more than they bargained for on Wednesday when a romantic gesture turned out to be a police raid leading to their arrests.
Police footage of the raid showed a giant teddy bear holding up gifts outside the women’s home, while another officer held a heart-covered sign reading “You are my reason to smile.”
One of the women rushed down the stairs to receive her offering.
But love can be deceiving, and the cuddly bear quickly sprang into action, tackling her to the ground. The second woman was arrested inside.
“It was a surprise operation for them as part of the day of love,” the disguised officer later told AFP.
Police said the women, a mother and daughter, were part of a gang called “the drug cheats,” and sold cocaine paste and marijuana from their home in northern Lima.
Hundreds of packages of drugs were seized at the location.
Peruvian police have become adept at disguises and operations launched on special dates to try to deceive and trap criminals.
The officers “disguised themselves using the teddy bear because drugs were sold there,” Col. Walter Palomino, head of the Green Squadron of the National Police, told AFP.
Peru is one of the world’s biggest cocaine producers, yielding some 400 tons per year, according to official figures.
In 2023, authorities seized 21.5 tons of cocaine and dismantled 119 criminal networks linked to drug trafficking, according to the interior ministry.
Giant teddy bear nabs Peru drug dealers in Valentine raid
https://arab.news/9q4qr
Giant teddy bear nabs Peru drug dealers in Valentine raid
- A romantic gesture turned out to be a police raid leading to their arrests
- Police footage of the raid showed a giant teddy bear holding up gifts outside the women’s home
Arts festival’s decision to exclude Palestinian author spurs boycott
- A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship,” with her lawyers issuing a letter to the festival
SYDENY: A top Australian arts festival has seen the withdrawal of dozens of writers in a backlash against its decision to bar an Australian Palestinian author after the Bondi Beach mass shooting, as moves to curb antisemitism spur free speech concerns.
The shooting which killed 15 people at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Dec. 14 sparked nationwide calls to tackle antisemitism. Police say the alleged gunmen were inspired by Daesh.
The Adelaide Festival board said last Thursday it would disinvite Randa Abdel-Fattah from February’s Writers Week in the state of South Australia because “it would not be culturally sensitive to continue to program her at this unprecedented time so soon after Bondi.”
FASTFACTS
• Abdel-Fattah responded, saying it was ‘a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship.’
• Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.
A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship,” with her lawyers issuing a letter to the festival.
Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.
Among the boycotting authors, Kathy Lette wrote on social media the decision to bar Abdel-Fattah “sends a divisive and plainly discriminatory message that platforming Australian Palestinians is ‘culturally insensitive.'”
The Adelaide Festival said in a statement on Monday that three board members and the chairperson had resigned. The festival’s executive director, Julian Hobba, said the arts body was “navigating a complex moment.”
a complex and unprecedented moment” after the “significant community response” to the board decision.
In the days after the Bondi Beach attack, Jewish community groups and the Israeli government criticized Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for failing to act on a rise in antisemitic attacks and criticized protest marches against Israel’s war in Gaza held since 2023.
Albanese said last week a Royal Commission will consider the events of the shooting as well as antisemitism and social cohesion in Australia. Albanese said on Monday he would recall parliament next week to pass tougher hate speech laws.
On Monday, New South Wales state premier Chris Minns announced new rules that would allow local councils to cut off power and water to illegally operating prayer halls.
Minns said the new rules were prompted by the difficulty in closing a prayer hall in Sydney linked to a cleric found by a court to have made statements intimidating Jewish Australians.
The mayor of the western Sydney suburb of Fairfield said the rules were ill-considered and councils should not be responsible for determining hate speech.
“Freedom of speech is something that should always be allowed, as long as it is done in a peaceful way,” Mayor Frank Carbone told Reuters.
