Controversial influencer and former kickboxer Andrew Tate has been arrested in Romania on suspicion of rape and human trafficking, among other things. His brother Tristan and two other Romanian men have also been arrested, authorities have confirmed.
BREAKING: Andrew Tate and brother Tristan arrested in Romania in human trafficking probe pic.twitter.com/b5eaZrErAb
— BNO News (@BNONews) December 29, 2022
The Tate brothers and the two others are suspected of setting up a criminal organization that recruits and exploits women by forcing them to make pornographic images. Those images are then offered on a pay site, which would have made Tate a lot of money.
Andrew Tate detained in Romania over human trafficking case https://t.co/FdLwKSLcWB
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) December 30, 2022
The Romanian authorities have shared a video of the arrest. Tate’s house in the capital Bucharest was searched and, according to the Public Prosecution Service, six women were found there who are victims of the exploitation network. Tate and his brother will be held for at least 24 hours.
Andrew Tate has been discredited several times over the past year for his controversial statements in various videos, podcasts and interviews, especially about women. He said, among other things, that they are “owned by a man” and “co-responsible for rape”.
yes, please do enlighten me. email me at [email protected] https://t.co/V8geeVvEvg
— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) December 28, 2022
Last August, Tate was banned from virtually all social media platforms, but recently returned to Twitter thanks to new owner Elon Musk.
I've gotten quite a bit of pushback about my pizza box tweet. I want to explain my thought process and acknowledge the fair criticism. I had no idea this would go this insanely viral.
Full thread behind why I tweeted this: 🧵 https://t.co/it5eYPSPsr
— Alejandra Caraballo (@Esqueer_) December 30, 2022
This week, a brief interaction between him and Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg went viral. Tate sent a tweet to Thunberg telling her about how much exhaust fumes his 33 cars emit. She jokingly replied, “Tell me more. Email me at [email protected].” Her response became one of the most-liked tweets in a short time, with 3.2 million likes.
this is what happens when you don’t recycle your pizza boxes
— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) December 30, 2022
Tate then responded with a two-minute video, which some say led to his arrest. The American-British influencer has been under investigation for months by a special police department, which would have waited until the brothers were together. By showing pizza boxes from a Romanian restaurant in Tate’s video, authorities could have determined where and when Tate was. However, this has not been confirmed.
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