The leader of the Proud Boys, a far-right, all-male extremist group, went undercover to assist Miami police and cooperated with the FBI in multiple drug and illegal gambling investigations, a court transcript shows.
Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, 36, began working with the FBI after he was arrested in 2013 on federal fraud charges related to a scheme to sell stolen diabetic test strips well below market value, according to the transcript reviewed by NBC News.
“From day one, he was the one who wanted to talk to law enforcement, wanted to clear his name, wanted to straighten this out so that he could move on with his life,” a prosecutor told the judge at a court hearing after he pleaded guilty.
In arguing for a reduced sentence for Tarrio, the prosecutor said he had helped federal law enforcement prosecute 13 other people in two separate indictments.
“He has in fact cooperated in a significant way,” the prosecutor said at the 2014 hearing.
The judge ultimately agreed to reduce Tarrio’s sentence from 30 months in prison to 16 months, the court documents show.
Messages left at the listed numbers for Tarrio were not returned. But in an interview with Reuters, which was first to report his previous role as a law enforcement cooperator, Tarrio denied working with the police.
“I don’t know any of this,” he said, when asked about the transcript. “I don’t recall any of this.”
Tarrio was arrested in Washington D.C. just two days before the storming of the Capitol. He was charged with possessing two high-capacity gun magazines and destroying a Black Lives Matter sign at a historic church in the nation’s capital.
Multiple senior law enforcement officials say the FBI tipped off police to Tarrio’s presence in Washington.
At least five members of the Proud Boys have been charged with participating in the Jan. 6 riot.
Tarrio’s role as a police informant predated the rise of the Proud Boys, which was formed in 2016. He became the national chairman of the group, which describes itself as “western chauvinists,” in 2018.
There’s no indication in the public filings or transcripts that law enforcement officers were aware of any involvement Tarrio may have had in extremist groups. There’s also no indication that he has recently cooperated with federal or local law enforcement.
Tarrio’s role was not limited to helping the feds, according to the transcript of the so-called Rule 35 hearing, which was held to allow the government to make the case for a reduced sentence given his assistance in other investigations.
FBI Special Agent Rod Novales told the judge that he was aware of Tarrio’s work with a Miami PD detective on an illegal gambling operation.
“In fact, I had a drive-by surveillance with Henry Tarrio where he showed me the two locations that were engaged in illegal gambling,” Novales told the court.
Tarrio’s then-attorney, Jeffrey Feiler, said in court that his client had worked undercover in multiple investigations involving human smuggling, the sale of anabolic steroids and prescription narcotics.
Feiler said Tarrio was a “prolific” cooperator who put himself at risk in the smuggling case and “negotiated to pay $11,000 to members of that ring to bring in fictitious family members of his from another country.”
But the FBI said nothing came of the smuggling investigation.
Tarrio also worked with the Miami police and Hialeah Police Department to break up a marijuana ring, his then-lawyer said in court. Tarrio’s cooperation led to several arrests and the raiding of marijuana grow houses which generated 100 pounds total of marijuana, Feiler said.
The prosecutor on the 2012 fraud case acknowledged that he did cooperate on the grow houses case, but she said they never heard back from police on the status of the case so he wasn’t given credit for it in their effort to reduce his sentence.
Reached Wednesday, Feiler said that he doesn’t recall many of the particulars of the case. But he added: “What was represented to the judge was true to the best of my knowledge and the information provided to me.”
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
