Enrique Tarrio

Henry "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. Tarrio, 36, is a high-profile figure who organizes and leads the rightwing Proud Boys in their confrontations with those they believe to be antifa, short for “anti-fascism”, an amorphous and often violent leftist movement. Tarrio, based in Miami, became the national chairman of the group in 2018. The Proud Boys were involved in the deadly insurrection at the Capitol on 6 January 2021. 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. He has denied working undercover or cooperating in cases against others. Tarrio’s information led to the prosecution of 13 people on federal charges in two separate cases, and had helped local authorities investigate a gambling ring. An FBI agent called Tarrio a “key component” in local police investigations involving marijuana, cocaine and MDMA, or ecstasy. Tarrio acknowledged that his fraud sentence was reduced, from 30 months to 16 months, but insisted that leniency was provided only because he and his co-defendants helped investigators “clear up” questions about his own case. From Rolling Stones' 6/15/21 "The Rise and Fall of the Proud Boys": "The Florida state director of Latinos for Trump, Tarrio who is of Cuban descent who grew up with family members who attributed their conservatism to living under Fidel Castro. Despite his criminal record (he was sentenced to a 16-month federal prison term in 2014 for his role in a scheme to resell fraudulent diabetes test kits), and his propensity for using racial, ethnic, and homophobic slurs on social media, Tarrio was ambitious, charismatic, and well-liked within the organization, with the high-gloss patina of Republican-establishment credentials, making him an ideal replacement for the more mercurial McInnes."