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Proud Boys leader was government informant, records show

FILE - In this Sept. 26, 2020, file photo, Proud Boys leader Henry "Enrique" Tarrio wears a hat that says The War Boys during a rally in Portland, Ore. Police in the nation’s capital on Jan. 4, 2021, arrested the leader of the Proud Boys, who is accused of burning a Black Lives Matter banner that was torn down from a historic Black church in downtown Washington in December 2020. (AP Photo/Allison Dinner, File)
by: WRTV Staff
Posted: / Updated:

Court records show that the leader of the Proud Boys, who was arrested in Washington shortly before the Capitol riot, previously worked undercover and cooperated with investigators after he was accused of fraud in 2012.

The details of Henry “Enrique” Tarrio’s cooperation were found in a transcript of a 2014 hearing in federal court in Florida.

It appears Tarrio went undercover to help Miami police and he cooperated with the FBI in multiple drug and illegal gambling investigations, according to court transcripts obtained by media outlets like the AP and NBC.

An email seeking comment was not immediately returned from a lawyer representing Tarrio in his current case.

Tarrio was arrested earlier this year and charged with possession two high-capacity gun magazines and destroying a Black Lives Matter sign at a historic church in D.C.

The Proud Boys is a far-right, male chauvinist extremist group that seized on the Trump administration’s policies and was a major agitator during earlier protests and the Capitol riot on Jan. 6.

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