John McAfee was taken into police custody in Guatemala on Wednesday for being in the country illegally, police there have confirmed.
The McAfee Security founder had fled to Guatemala to avoid authorities in neighboring Belize, where he is wanted for questioning in the gunshot murder of his neighbor Greg Faull. McAfee has repeatedly claimed to be innocent. He was first reported detained by Robert King, a Vice photographer he was traveling with, who, oddly, likely contributed to McAfee’s capture.
On Monday, Vice published a story titled “We Are With John McAfee Right Now, Suckers” and inadvertently revealed McAfee’s whereabouts in Guatemala via location data embedded in the photo. McAfee and Vice photographer King both claimed the photo had been manipulated to conceal his true location.
McAfee later admitted that was a lie, and King’s Facebook status update claiming the photo was doctored disappeared. Wired emailed Vice’s Alex Detrick to ask if the publication stood by King’s statement, but Vice did not respond. However, on Tuesday, Vice published a new video of McAfee in Guatemala and claimed that he had “just hired the best lawyer in the country.” McAfee announced a press conference, and promised his new attorney the entire world media would show up. He was subsequently taken into custody by the Guatemala National Civil Police and Interpol.
On Wednesday, King reported Mcafee had been detained, which authorities in Guatemala subsequently confirmed. McAfee previously told Wired’s Joshua Davis he had dyed his hair, eyebrows, beard, and mustache black to avoid detection. This seemed like obvious subterfuge, but appears to be the case based on his appearances on Vice, and in a photo published by the Guatemala National Civil Police following McAfee’s detention.
If you’re worried that McAfee might drop out of public sight now that he’s been captured, don’t be. He’s already jailblogging and plans to go ahead with the press conference.
Mat Honan is a senior writer for Wired's Gadget Lab and the co-founder of the Knight-Batten award-winning Longshot magazine.
Read more by Mat Honan
Follow @mat on Twitter.
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