A Romanian court ordered controversial influencer Andrew Tate to be detained for 30 days on Friday following his arrest for alleged human trafficking, rape and formation of a criminal group.
Ramona Bolla, spokeswoman for Romania’s Directorate against Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT), told AFP on Friday that four suspects had been remanded in custody for 30 days after their arrest on Thursday night.
They are former professional kickboxer Tate, who is a British-American citizen, his brother Tristan, and two Romanian citizens.
Tate and his brother were initially detained for 24 hours, but prosecutors asked a Bucharest court to extend the detention of the four suspects as part of the ongoing investigation.
Since the beginning of 2021, the prosecution has been investigating the suspects and had already searched the Tate villa in April.
The four suspects allegedly recruited and exploited women by forcing them to perform “forced labor… and pornographic acts with a view to producing and disseminating such material” online for “significant financial gain.”
So far six possible victims have been identified.
Romanian police raided five locations across the country as part of their investigation.
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The move came just days after Tate had a heated exchange on Twitter with Swedish environmentalist Greta Thunberg, who internet users have speculated helped Romanian police locate and arrest him.
Viral exchanges on Twitter between Tate and Thunberg this week on topics ranging from cars with “huge emissions” to pizza boxes fueled speculation on social media.
Some internet users argued that the pizza brand featured in a video posted by Tate of his angry exchanges with Thunberg had helped police confirm Tate’s presence in Romania.
“This is what happens when you don’t recycle pizza boxes,” Thunberg joked on Twitter after Tate’s arrest.
But DIICOT spokeswoman Bolla told AFP on Friday that it is “not related”.
“To determine whether or not a person is in the country, we use a whole range of means,” he said, noting that “arrest warrants and search warrants” had already been issued.
Greta Thunberg’s spokesperson confirmed to AFP that her tweet this morning, which has so far garnered some 2.4 million likes, was actually a “joke”.
The Romanian authorities “have not contacted her,” the spokesman added.
Tate appeared on the TV show Big Brother in 2016 but was cut after video surfaced showing him attacking a woman.
She moved to Romania several years ago with her brother.
Tate has been banned from many social media platforms for misogynistic comments and hate speech, but was allowed back on Twitter after Elon Musk bought the company.
