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| - A rumor that circulated online in January 2026 claimed federal authorities with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the FBI carried out a massive campaign in Minneapolis, arresting over 5,000 cartel members in a mission named Operation Iron North.
In short, the rumor was false. Users fabricated and promoted the story with the help of artificial intelligence (AI), at least in part to generate advertising revenue from inflammatory and made-up political content. Users and publications often refer to such content as "AI slop."
Searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo found no reputable news media outlets reporting on such an operation.
Additional searches determined that a Jan. 12 YouTube video (archived) was the oldest existing record of users promoting the rumor. That clip surfaced days after ICE agent Jonathan Ross fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis. The YouTube channel hosting the video displayed no external contact information and featured additional videos promoting similar fictional tales of federal agencies conducting major operations.
Snopes contacted the U.S. Department of Homeland Security — which oversees ICE — as well as the FBI and the DEA to request statements about the rumor. We will update this story if we receive responses.
Examining the rumor and AI-generated images
Online searches found numerous social media users sharing the story, particularly on Facebook.
For example, on Jan. 27, a Facebook user posted a multi-paragraph story with a link leading to an advertisement-filled, AI-generated article on the newsusstareverydays.com WordPress blog. That Facebook post (archived) featured AI-generated images showing Fox News reported the story with a lower-third chyron that read, "5,000+ Arrested in Cartel Mega Operation."
The post began, "BREAKING: ICE, FBI & DEA Take Down Thousands of Sinaloa & CJNG Cartel Operatives in Minneapolis — Hidden Drug Hubs, $220M in Crypto, and Lethal Fentanyl Seized in Operation Iron North."
(Carmen Russo/Facebook)
The post's top image showed an AI-generated view of police cars, officials wearing FBI jackets, tables full of drugs and rows of detained cartel members. Under that image, a genuine photo documented an unrelated matter concerning the July 2024 arrests of two cartel leaders.
A prompt with the Google Gemini AI tool SynthID Detector scanned the first image with the fake Fox News graphics and found a SynthID watermark — a hidden label Google adds to images made or manipulated with its AI platforms. Gemini answered the prompt, in part, "This image was partially edited or generated with Google AI tools."
At least one user shared a post (archived) with a different AI-generated image featuring a purported Fox News chyron. In that image, some of the supposed agents and cars mistakenly displayed lettering for both "FBI" and "DEA," serving as one of several signs of AI generation. Google Gemini also found a SynthID watermark in that image. The second photo — a genuine image — documented the 2014 arrest of Mexican drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán and was unrelated to the false rumor.
The post began, "Operation Iron North: The cking Truth Behind the Sinaloa & CJNG Cartels' Corporate-Style Drug Networks!" A link in the post led to a different AI-generated article on the newsusstareverydays.com website.
(Xoli M/Facebook)
Comments under these two false and misleading Facebook posts, and other social media posts, reflected that many users wrongly believed Operation Iron North truly existed, with federal agencies arresting 5,000-plus cartel members in Minneapolis. Had any such arrests occurred — including with federal agents parading detainees and drugs in Minneapolis' streets in broad daylight, as depicted in the above images — authentic photos would exist to highlight the success of the operation. Online searches located no such images.
AI-generated WordPress articles
Scans of the two aforementioned newsusstareverydays.com articles with the AI-detection tools Copyleaks.com and ZeroGPT.com both determined users generated some or all of the text with AI. Since AI-detection tools provide varying — and sometimes incorrect — results, we searched for other signs of AI. The ends of both articles featured the same forward-thinking, dramatized wording often found in conclusions of AI-generated stories.
One of the articles ended with the AI-written wording, "As we move forward, it is crucial to recognize that this is not just a law enforcement issue; it is a societal challenge that requires a collective effort. By understanding the dynamics at play, we can work towards a safer future, free from the grip of organized crime."
The other article, specifically citing the work of a fictional character named "Special Agent Marco Rivera," similarly concluded with, "The city above slept peacefully. But beneath ordinary apartments and nonprofit offices, a hidden cartel empire was quietly preparing its next move.
For further reading, we previously reported our investigative findings about a campaign of "AI slop" promoting fake stories about the July 2025 Texas flash floods.
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