Proud Boy leader Enrique Tarrio was former police informant

Five Fast Facts

• 36-year old Enrique ‘Henry” Tarrio is the leader of the Proud Boys, an extreme right-wing group with militia ties
• Tarrio was arrested in 2012 for the theft, relabeling, and resale of diabetes test kits
• In 2014, according to federal court records, Tarrio was given a lesser sentence in exchange for providing state evidence
• According to federal court records, Tarrio work as an informant led to 13 arrests on federal charges in two cases, including drug distribution and human trafficking – an FBI agent called Tarrio a “key component” in investigations involving marijuana, cocaine, and MDMA (ecstasy)
• Tarrio claims he never was an informant, when confronted with the court records and transcripts he went on to say he does not “recall,” the events – Tarrio is not considered to be an informant now but there are questions about his close ties to various police agencies that are now a decade long

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys extremist group, has a past as an informer for federal and local law enforcement, repeatedly working undercover for investigators after he was arrested in 2012, according to a former prosecutor and a transcript of a 2014 federal court proceeding obtained by Reuters.

In the Miami hearing, a federal prosecutor, a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent and Tarrio’s own lawyer described his undercover work and said he had helped authorities prosecute more than a dozen people in various cases involving drugs, gambling and human smuggling.

Keep reading at Reuters

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