Those are definately not pure ruthveni, nor are they pure anything. I dont mean that in a bad way, I just mean they are definately a mix of some sort. They look like ruthveni x mexicana to me but its virtually impossible to say for sure. They are nice looking snakes though and as long as you represent them as hybrids/crosses I see no problem with them.

Most likely your friend had no idea they weren't pure because wild ruthveni have not been imported since the early 1980's and there are so many crosses around nowdays that it can be hard to find pure examples to compare to.

Here is one example of a pure ruthveni, just for reference. You can see that the black bands are wider and the white bands straighter than the ones you posted.

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www.hcu-tx.org/