Andrew Tate, a controversial media personality and his brother, Tristan Tate, have been arrested and detained by Romanian authorities on allegations of human trafficking, rape and forming an organised crime group that exploits women for pornographic videos, reported the Romanian newspaper Libertatea.
Both the Tate brothers were arrested inside their house after their properties were raided in Bucharest. They will be taken to DIICOT (Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism) for further questioning.
According to the prosecutors, Tate and his brother have been under criminal investigation since April. Both the accused individuals have declined to comment, but their lawyer has confirmed to Reuters that they are currently detained.
"The four suspects appear to have created an organised crime group with the purpose of recruiting, housing and exploiting women by forcing them to create pornographic content meant to be seen on specialised websites for a cost. They would have gained significant sums of money," prosecutors told Reuters.
Prosecutors also revealed to the aforementioned publication that they had found six women who had been sexually exploited by the suspects. Prior to this, The Guardian reported that Tate was also under investigation by the UK police for abuse allegations and had left the country to "evade rape charges." In one video, that was soon deleted, the former kickboxer admitted that his move to Romania was to maintain his freedom. He said, “I’m not a rapist, but I like the idea of just being able to do what I want. I like being free."
Earlier this week, the British national took a jibe at the popular climate activist Greta Thunberg on Twitter by uploading a picture of himself at a gas station stating that he owned 33 cars with "enormous emissions."
In response, Thunberg quipped, “Yes, please do enlighten me” before asking Tate to email her at the made-up address we’ve censored, smalld*ckenergy (at) getalife.com. Her response garnered 2.2 million likes at the time of writing this story.
Tate then put up a video of him smoking a cigar and mocking Thunberg’s made-up email address. “Thank you for confirming via your email address that you have a small penis, Greta Thunberg,” he wrote in the caption. "The world was curious. And I do agree you should get a life."
Thank you for confirming via your email address that you have a small penis @GretaThunberg
— Andrew Tate (@Cobratate) December 28, 2022
The world was curious.
And I do agree you should get a life ❤️ https://t.co/mHmiKHjDGH pic.twitter.com/SMisajQRcf
Since the news of his arrest went viral, many spectators have been claiming that it was his own reaction video that led authorities to confirm his location in Romania.
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