Bucharest: Romanian prosecutors said on Thursday they have detained divisive internet personality and former professional kickboxer Andrew Tate on suspicion of human trafficking, rape and forming an organised crime group.
Tate, banned from many social media platforms for misogynistic comments and hate speech, and his brother Tristan will be detained for 24 hours alongside two Romanian suspects, prosecutors from the anti organised-crime unit said in a statement after raiding their properties in Bucharest.
"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," prosecutors said.
"They would have gained important sums of money." Prosecutors said they had found six women who had been sexually exploited by the suspects.
Tate has said women are partially responsible for being raped and that they belong to men.
Earlier this week, the British national was told to get a life by climate activist Greta Thunberg on Twitter after he told her he owned 33 cars with "enormous emissions."
It was not clear how the Tate brothers had been traced. As Romanian authorities sought for proof that Andrew Tate was in the country, they reportedly used his social media posts. A video he posted recently featured a pizza from a Romanian pizza chain, Jerry's Pizza, thus confirming he was in the country.
According to the local media, the raid was carried out by the Directorate for the Investigation of Organised Crime and Terrorism, on the morning of December 29. Social media posts show Tate and his brother Tristan being led out of a villa in police custody.
Authorities have reportedly focused attention on a number of luxury vehicles at the residence and that a police trailer was on-site, possibly to uplift one or multiple vehicles.
Who is Andrew Tate?
Emory Andrew Tate III, a former Big Brother UK contestant, became a content creator after he retired from kickboxing. He became well-known for making provocative claims on subjects like sexual assault and harassment. His thoughts are often blatantly sexist and dangerous to be published on the internet, but videos of him have been viewed nearly 12 billion times, according to international news reports.
He is known for sharing views that suggest women should be staying home and caring for a man while he goes out, works and spends money on her. In a previous quote, Andrew Tate was heard saying that he views his sister as her husband’s property after she gets married. His videos also show that he believes in the inferiority of women.
