First came the back-and-forth with Greta Thunberg. Then came jail.
Divisive internet personality Andrew Tate has been detained by Romanian authorities on suspicion of human trafficking, rape and forming an organised crime group.
The former professional kickboxer, who shot to fame this year for misogynistic posts that ultimately got him kicked off of multiple social media platforms, was detained alongside his brother, Tristan, and two Romanian suspects for 24 hours.
BREAKING: Andrew Tate and brother Tristan arrested in Romania in human trafficking probe pic.twitter.com/b5eaZrErAb
— BNO News (@BNONews) December 29, 2022
So far, six people have been identified as being sexually exploited by the “organised criminal group”.
“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,” Romanian prosecutors said.
“They would have gained important sums of money.”
A spokesperson for Mr Tate told Mirror: “We cannot provide any details at the moment regarding alleged reports that they have been detained; however, Andrew and Tristan Tate have the utmost respect for the Romanian authorities and will always assist and help in any way they can.”
Mr Tate has previously posted tweets stating that rape victims needed to “bear responsibility”.
He’s also talked about abusing and controlling women.
“It’s bang out the machete, boom in her face and grip her by the neck. Shut up b••••,” he said in one social media video, acting out how he’d attack a woman if she accused him of cheating.
The allegations against Mr Tate come shortly after he appeared on British TV host Piers Morgan’s show and talked about how “not a single woman” has accused him of a crime or rape.
Pizza comes before a fall
Mr Tate’s detainment comes just days after he was smacked down by teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg on Twitter.
After Mr Tate tagged Ms Thunberg in an antagonistic tweet bragging about his multiple cars and “enormous emissions”, the internet largely decided Ms Thunberg wrecked the misogynist with her short and snappy reply: “yes, please do enlighten me. email me at smalldickenergy@getalife.com.”
Many social media users are now alleging the online back-and-forth could have been Mr Tate’s downfall.
Mr Tate posted a video in response to Ms Thunberg’s tweet, smoking a cigar in a bathrobe before a box of pizza was placed in front of him as he claimed the young activist is a “slave of the matrix”.
Tweet from @Cobratate
While Romanian authorities have not addressed whether the pizza contributed to Mr Tate’s detainment at all, internet sleuths believe its box, belonging to a Romanian pizza outfit, helped confirm Mr Tate was in the country and could have led to his arrest.
Tweet from @TechnicallyRon
Tweet from @JoshuaPHilll
