Social media influencer Andrew Tate has been arrested in Romania on suspicion of human trafficking, rape and forming an organized crime group, prosecutors have confirmed.
The 36-year-old British-American and his brother Tristan were arrested on Thursday evening and are being held for 24 hours alongside two Romanian suspects, the country’s prosecutors said.
“The four suspects (…) appear to have created an organized crime group with the purpose of recruiting, housing and exploiting women by forcing them to create pornographic content intended to be viewed on specialized websites for a fee,” said the fiscal
“They would have made significant sums of money.”
The brothers, who have been under criminal investigation since April, declined to comment, but their lawyer confirmed they had been arrested.
In a video of his arrest, Tate can be heard saying “the mother got me” as he is escorted away by police.
Their lawyer says: “The suspects will be brought before the court, with a proposal for prison” and tells reporters that the brothers have not made a statement.
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1:47 Romanian police release video of raid after arrest of Andrew Tate.
Prosecutors said six people had been identified as having been sexually exploited by the “organized criminal group”.
They said the victims were recruited by “British citizens misrepresenting their intention to enter into a marriage or cohabitation relationship and the existence of genuine feelings of love”.
They were then transferred to Romania’s Ilfov County where “by exercising acts of physical violence and mental coercion – through intimidation, constant surveillance, control and invoking alleged debts – they were sexually exploited by members of the group forcing them to carry out pornographic manifestations with the purpose of producing and disseminating through social network platforms material that has this nature and submitting to the execution of forced labor”.
Tate, a former kickboxer, was banned from Twitter in 2017 for his misogynistic views and hate speech, but was reinstated last month.
He still has a presence on other social media platforms: on TikTok, for example, he has been banned from having an account, but content posted under the hashtag Andrew Tate has been viewed billions of times.
Tate first rose to fame in 2016 for being axed from reality TV show Big Brother after a video surfaced showing him attacking a woman with a belt; claimed the clip was edited.
He has suggested that rape victims “bear some responsibility” for being attacked and described women as the “property” of men.
He has also described how he would violently assault a woman for accusing him of cheating, saying he would “pull the machete, hit her in the face and grab her by the neck”.
As a result, concerns have been raised about its influence on young people, especially young men.
Tate has denied holding misogynistic views and accused his critics of “twisting the facts”, although he has also described himself as the “king of toxic masculinity”.
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Earlier in the week, Tate sparked a spat with climate activist Greta Thunberg on Twitter when he shared a photo of himself next to a Bugatti and said he owned 33 cars.
“Please provide your email address so I can send a full list of my car collection and their respective huge emissions,” he tweeted, tagging Ms Thunberg.
Ms Thunberg responded by saying: “Yes please enlighten me”, adding a fake email address mocking him and ending with the words “getalife.com”.