NY Times: Other than the facts were all wrong, the primary source has been arrested for creating a hoax, and we didn’t bother to verify much, it’s a great story
A 12-part NY Times story from 2018 was based entirely on a hoax. In their Editor’s note they leave the obvious wording “This entire fabricated piece of fiction has been retracted.”
Source: Prologue: The Mission – The New York Times
The reporter still works for the NY Times.