Court Filing Reveals Leader of Proud Boys is FBI Informant

As our political theater turned ever more tawdry these last few months, we became familiar with a number of groups who worked on the fringes of political activism.  These were the Antifas and Proud Boys of the world, many of whom believed that direct, violent action could be the way to stymy their political enemies.

As such, these groups often operated on the dark side of the law, raising funds and recruiting in ways that more mainstream players wouldn’t dare.  To make this sort of arrangement work is an honor among thieves sort of situation, and it looks as though the leader of Proud Boys may have run afoul of that.

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.

The infamous rabble-rouser attempted to deny any such involvement with authorities.

Tarrio, in an interview with Reuters Tuesday, denied working undercover or cooperating in cases against others. “I don’t know any of this,” he said, when asked about the transcript. “I don’t recall any of this.”

The court documents state that Tarrio helped the fed bust a number of different criminal outfits, including marijuana grow houses and pharmaceutical fraud rings.