Over the course of the last few months, Americans have become all-too-familiar with notorious hate group Proud Boys, who’ve been spending plenty of time and resources on their far-right agenda.
And while the group has done a bang-up job of finding the middle of just about every political skirmish we’ve endured of late, it turns out that there may be a whole lot more to the story than we could have imagined.
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.
Barrio attempted to distance himself from the revelations.
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 group, which has been a part of the right wing underground for years, isn’t likely to look kindly upon Tarrio’s alleged involvement with the police, and the accusations could certainly jeopardize his standing within the organization.
