A reputed Proud Boys member was arrested Tuesday night in Queens after federal authorities tied him to a series of online posts threatening to send an armed caravan to Washington D.C., according to news reports.
The FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force arrested Middle Village resident Eduard Florea, 40, after searching his home on 76th Street near Elliot Avenue, the New York Daily News and NBC4 New York reported.
Florea was charged with being a convicted felon in possession of ammunition, a law enforcement source told Patch.
He is expected to appear in Brooklyn federal court Wednesday.
Florea is not believed to have joined the deadly siege on the U.S. Capitol last week by pro-Trump extremists, law enforcement sources told NBC4 New York.
But he has purported ties to the Proud Boys, a far-right group that reportedly helped lead the attempted insurrection on Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol, according to ABC7 New York.
Florea has previously been arrested on weapons and domestic abuse charges.
When a Proud Boy got taken, I didn't say anything because I'm not a Proud Boy...
When a Progressive got taken....
Update: The suspect is quite the influencer
The Proud Boys typically move around public demonstrations like a small army, flooding entire blocks in their trademark black and yellow colors. But on this day, their strategy was to avoid detection. Their self-styled “chairman,” Enrique Tarrio, had ordered the Proud Boys to go “incognito” and dress in plain clothes, so while they were central to the planning, inciting, and execution of the insurrection that led to five deaths, their role was not immediately obvious from the video disseminated from the scene.
In a stream from before the rally, Joe Biggs, a former InfoWars staffer who led the Proud Boys in Tarrio’s absence, reiterated the plan for the group not to wear their traditional colors.
“We will not be attending D.C. in colors. We will be blending in as one of you. You won't see us. You'll even think we are you,” Biggs said. “We are going to smell like you, move like you, and look like you. The only thing we'll do that's us is think like us! Jan 6th is gonna be epic.”
Partly because of this, the group has mostly evaded scrutiny for the violence at the Capitol—which came as lawmakers were scheduled to convene and certify the results of the 2020 election, affirming Joe Biden as the winner and Donald Trump the loser.
Tarrio
himself was not present: He was arrested on his way into D.C. earlier
in the week and charged for a misdemeanor for his alleged role tearing
down Black Live Matter signs from a Black church in December. During the
arrest, police discovered two high-capacity magazines, emblazoned with
Proud Boy insignia, and charged him with an additional felony. Upon his
release, a judge ordered him to stay away from D.C.
