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Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum presented reporters with a fake photo of Ryan Wedding on Monday, insisting that this was proof that the suspected drug kingpin had surrendered voluntarily.
CBC News has determined that the photo was, in fact, created using artificial intelligence and posted to an Instagram account purporting to belong to the Wedding. released last week.
At a regularly scheduled news conference in Mexico City, Sheinbaum tried to downplay any suggestion that US authorities were operating on Mexican soil – insisting that the longtime fugitive who was born in Ontario turned himself in at the US embassy “with both his feet.”
With the photo projected on the big screen behind her, Sheinbaum quoted in an Instagram post, saying it was from a “representative” of the wedding.
“After seeking assurances of due process,” the Instagram caption read, “I have decided to voluntarily surrender to the authorities.”
The photo was posted on a deleted Instagram account
The imthe age in question was posted on an Instagram account bossryanwCBC News recently reported that it was filled with AI-generated images allegedly linked to the Wedding.
Those photos have all now been deleted and the only photo left on the account is an AI-generated photo purporting to show a Wedding at the American Embassy.
Reached by a reporter last week, the person using the social media account failed to provide any evidence of contact with the 44-year-old former Olympic figure skater.
Marriage, who is on the FBI’s top 10 most wanted fugitives list, is accused of running a criminal enterprise that ships 60 tons of cocaine a year from Mexico back to the US. Canada. He was arrested last week and rushed to California to face charges including murder.
In a statement posted online on Monday, Mexico’s Attorney General Ernestina Godoy Ramos described the marriage as a “high-profile operation” linked to the Sinaloa Cartel, which served as “an important bridge for the distribution of drugs in North America.
Marriage, who went by names including Public Enemy and El Jefe (the Boss), pleaded not guilty to the charges in a Santa Ana, Calif., court on Monday.
Outside the court, the defendant’s lawyer, Anthony Colombo, told the media that his client was arrested.
“Any imputation by the Mexican government on this, he surrendered, is inaccurate.”
The plane carrying Olympian-turned-drug lord Ryan Wedding arrives at an airport in Ontario, Calif., on Friday, a day after the Canadian surrendered to U.S. authorities in Mexico.
The image has AI features
An AI-generated image posted Friday shows a man resembling Wedding in the same clothes he was seen wearing when he arrived at an airport in the Los Angeles area surrounded by FBI agents hours earlier. The man in the photo is said to be standing in front of the US embassy in Mexico City.
However, CBC News confirmed the embassy building seen on thThe e-image is still being edited, with a large banner reading “we’ve moved” visible outside.
In addition, the black cap that the man appears to be wearing has a sign of AI image generation: the letters on the front of the hat are tied.
Sheinbaum’s office did not immediately return a request for comment about the president’s use of the AI-generated image.
A spokesman for Mexico’s Security Minister Omar García Harfuch declined to comment.
Consecutive speeches when you are arrested
The debate highlights a major problem: the dramatic narrative presented by US and Mexican officials about the sequence of events that led to the high-profile marriage.
According to a Vanity Fair article shared online by FBI director Kash Patel, the couple were first arrested Thursday by Mexican authorities, then detained in the US after “intense” negotiations with the FBI.
“There is no joint operation in Mexico,” Sheinbaum insisted Monday. “We wouldn’t allow that.”
Speaking in general terms, he said Mexican law enforcement could work with American intelligence on a suspect wanted by American authorities.
Godoy, Mexico’s attorney general, said that marriage is “a voluntary commitment [followed] intense pressure” from his office and Mexico’s security secretary.
