Was Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio an FBI undercover informant?

Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, 36, of Miami, Florida, United States has served as an undercover informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, recent reports claimed. However, the leader of the Proud Boys claimed he could not remember it.

In 2012, Tarrio was arrested on fraud charges and was represented by Jeffrey Feiler. In a federal court proceeding in Miami in 2014, the lawyer said in court that his client had worked undercover in many investigations, including cases about human smuggling, wholesale prescription narcotics and the sale of anabolic steroids.

Joan A. Lenard was the judge who oversaw the said case. Tarrio “provided substantial assistance in the investigation and prosecution of other persons involved in criminal conduct,” Reuters quoted her as saying.

In a recent interview with the publication, Feiler said he did not recall details about the case. However, he noted that the information he provided to the court at the time was based on information provided to him by law enforcement and the prosecutor.

“I don’t know any of this,” Tarrio also told the publication when asked about his past as an FBI undercover informant. “I don’t recall any of this.”

According to Vanessa Singh Johannes, the federal prosecutor in Tarrio’s case at the time, his cooperation with local and federal law enforcement led to the prosecution of 13 people in two separate federal cases. He was a key component in local police investigations involving marijuana, cocaine and 3-4 methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) or ecstasy, an FBI agent said.

On December 12, 2020, Tarrio and other Proud Boys members scaled the fence of the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington D.C., USA and tore down a large Black Lives Matter sign on display. On January 4, 2020, the church filed a lawsuit against him and the group and he was arrested in shortly after his arrival in Washington, D.C. and charged with destruction of property.

On January 5, 2020, Tarrio was released from police custody and a judge ordered him to leave Washington, D.C. and banned him from returning except for legal purposes. After the U.S. Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, he blamed Democrats and Joe Biden for not listening to the concerns of Donald Trump’s voters about the legitimacy of the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

“Whether it’s the Capitol today or a state capitol tomorrow or some other government building, you probably will see this,” Tarrio to the Wall Street Journal. “I don’t want that to happen but fortunately, this is a reminder to these politicians that they work for us. We don’t work for them.”