Former kickboxing world champion turned Tik Tok star Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan have reportedly been arrested in Romania in connection to a probe into human trafficking, organised crime, and rape.
Prosecutors from the Directorate for the Investigation of Organised Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) in conjunction with the Bucharest Organised Crime Brigade carried out search warrant raids of five residences on Thursday reportedly including on the Tate mansion in the Romanian capital.
“So far, six injured persons have been identified who were sexually exploited by the organised criminal group. With regard to the crime of rape, it was noted that, in March 2022, an injured person was forced, on two different occasions, by a suspect through the exercise of physical violence and psychological pressure to have sexual relations,” a police statement read.
The statement did not mention Andrew or Tristan Tate, however, it refers to “two British citizens”, which reports from Romanian media have claimed are the Tates. The British-American social media influencers were born in the United States before moving with their British mother to Luton, England as children. They have since gone on to reside in Romania and Dubai.
This year, Andrew Tate became one of the most searched for men in the world after becoming a viral hit with his anti-feminist and anti-globalist rhetoric on Tik Tok and other social media sites, which ultimately resulted in him being banned from nearly all platforms.
The police said that the victims were allegedly recruited under false pretexts to “perform demonstrations pornographic for the purpose of producing and disseminating through social media.”
“In the case it was noted that, at the beginning of 2021, 4 suspects (two British citizens and two Romanian citizens) constituted a criminal group organised in order to commit crimes on the territory of Romania, but also of other countries, such as the United States of America and Great Britain, of the crime of human trafficking,” the statement continued.
On the allegations of rape, the police said that in April of this year, a woman was “forced, on two different occasions, by a suspect through the exercise of physical violence and psychological pressure to have sexual relations.”
In total, four people have been arrested in connection to the probe, including two Romanian citizens. The Directorate for the Investigation of Organised Crime and Terrorism said that they have all been detained for a period of 24 hours.
Following a raid earlier this year on his home, Andrew Tate claimed in an interview with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson that the allegations of human trafficking and kidnapping made against him were false and that he was a victim of “swatting”.
The reported arrest of Tate came just hours after he drew headlines for engaging in a public spat with Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg over his large collection of petrol-powered supercars and the issue of “penis size”. It has been speculated in the media that it was his response video to the green activist that tipped off Romanian police that they were in the country, with Tate jokingly declaring that he wasn’t going to recycle a couple of pizza boxes, which happened to belong to a Romanian pizza restaurant chain.
Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka
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