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Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum presented reporters with a fake image of Ryan Wedding on Monday, insisting it amounted to evidence the accused drug kingpin had voluntarily turned himself in.
CBC News has determined the image was, in fact, generated using artificial intelligence and posted to an Instagram account that purported to belong to Wedding that was debunked last week.
At a regularly-scheduled news conference in Mexico City, Sheinbaum sought to downplay any suggestion that U.S. authorities were operating on Mexican soil — insisting instead that the Ontario-born longtime fugitive had given himself up at the U.S. embassy “on his own two feet.”
With the image projected on a big screen behind her, Sheinbaum quoted from the Instagram post, which claims to be from Wedding’s “representative.”
“After seeking guarantees for a fair process,” the Instagram caption reads, “I have decided to voluntarily turn myself in to the authorities.”
Image posted to debunked Instagram account
The image in question was posted to the Instagram account bossryanw, which CBC News recently reported was filled with AI-generated images purportedly linked to Wedding.
Those images have all now been removed and the only photo that remains on the account is the AI-generated image purporting to show Wedding at the U.S. Embassy.
Reached last week by a reporter, the person operating the social media account failed to provide any evidence of a connection to the 44-year-old former Olympic snowboarder.
Wedding, who was listed as one of the FBI’s 10 most-wanted fugitives, is accused of running a murderous criminal enterprise that shipped 60 tonnes of cocaine a year from Mexico into the U.S. and Canada. He was arrested last week and immediately flown to California to face federal charges, including murder.
In a statement posted online Monday, Mexican Attorney-General Ernestina Godoy Ramos described Wedding as a “top-tier logistics operator” linked to the Sinaloa Cartel, who served “as a key bridge for the mass distribution of drugs in North America.
Wedding, who went by aliases including Public Enemy and El Jefe (the Boss) pleaded not guilty to federal charges in a courtroom in Santa Ana, Calif., on Monday.
Outside the courthouse, Wedding’s defence lawyer, Anthony Colombo, told reporters his client was apprehended.
“Any spin that the government in Mexico is putting on this, that he surrendered, is inaccurate.”
A flight carrying Olympian-turned-drug kingpin Ryan Wedding touches down at an airport in Ontario, Calif., on Friday, a day after the Canadian surrendered to U.S. authorities in Mexico.
Image bears hallmarks of AI
The AI-generated image posted Friday shows a man resembling Wedding in the same clothes he was seen wearing upon his arrival at a Los Angeles-area airport surrounded by FBI agents hours earlier. The man in the image is purportedly posing in front of the U.S. embassy in Mexico City.
However, CBC News verified the embassy building seen in the image is currently undergoing renovations, with a large banner that reads “we’ve moved” visible outside.
What’s more, the black cap the man is seen wearing bears a hallmark of AI image generation: the letters on the front of the hat are garbled.
Sheinbaum’s office did not immediately return a request for comment on the president’s use of the AI-generated image.
A representative for Mexican Security Minister Omar García Harfuch declined to comment.
Duelling narratives on arrest
The debacle highlights a bigger issue: the duelling narratives presented by U.S. and Mexican officials, regarding the sequence of events leading up to Wedding’s high-profile arrest.
According to a Vanity Fair article shared online by FBI director Kash Patel, Wedding was first captured on Thursday by Mexican authorities, then taken into U.S. custody after “intense” negotiations with the FBI.
“There are no joint operations in Mexico,” Sheinbaum insisted on Monday. “We would not allow that.”
Speaking generally, she said Mexican law enforcement can act on U.S. intelligence regarding a suspect wanted by U.S. authorities.
Godoy, the Mexican attorney general, said Wedding’s “voluntary surrender [followed] intense pressure” from her office and Mexico’s security secretariat.
