He might owe his arrest to Greta Thunberg and… a box of pizza. British boxer and influencer Andrew Tate was arrested on Friday in Romania, along with his brother Tristan. The two men are accused of rape and are suspected of being part of a criminal group involved in human trafficking.
In a press release, the Romanian police announce the arrest of two Romanians and two Britons in connection with this affair, on which an investigation has been open since 2021. They do not, however, explicitly name the Tate brothers, but their arrest has was confirmed by their lawyer to Reuters. The prosecution announced at the end of the day on Friday that Andrew Tate would be kept in detention for 30 days.
The four suspects are accused of forming “an organized criminal group with the aim of recruiting, harboring and exploiting women by forcing them to create pornographic content intended to be viewed on specialized websites”, say the Romanian authorities, which released on their site a video of the arrest.
“So far, six people who have been sexually exploited by the organized criminal group” have been identified, says the Romanian Directorate for Investigations of Organized Crime and Terrorism (Diicot). The victims were allegedly recruited “by British citizens who made them believe in a marriage and the existence of real feelings of love”, continues the press release from the Romanian police.
An ongoing controversy with Greta Thunberg
Former kickboxer Andrew Tate is known for his particularly misogynistic positions. He was notably excluded from the British television show Big Brother in 2016, after the broadcast of images in which he seemed to attack a woman with a belt, recalls the BBC. He was also banned from Twitter for saying women should “take responsibility” for being sexually assaulted.
Several other networks like Youtube, Instagram and Tik Tok had deleted his accounts in August, pointing out that misogyny was “a hateful ideology that was not tolerated”.
His Twitter account has since been reactivated, and Andrew Tate had been at the heart of a controversy for several days for provoking Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg. In a tweet, he had notably asked him for an e-mail address to send him the list of his “33 cars”.
The activist had replied by giving him a false address so that he “enlightened” her: “énergiedepetiteb***@achettoiunevie.com”. In a new response this Thursday evening, the former boxer appears in a bathrobe.
A box of pizza from the Romanian brand Jerry’s pizza is also visible. This element could have precisely alerted the Romanian authorities to the presence in the country of Andrew Tate, while they were looking for an element to confirm it.