Andrew Tate, a divisive social media personality and former professional kickboxer, was detained late Thursday in Romania on charges of human trafficking and rape, according to local media reports.
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Tate, a British-American national who was previously banned from various social media platforms for expressing misogynistic views and hate speech, was reportedly detained along with his brother Tristan in the Ilfov area, north of the Romanian capital Bucharest I went.
Romania’s anti-organized crime agency said in a late night statement that four suspects, including two British nationals and two Romanians, had been arrested on charges of being part of an organized crime group, human trafficking and rape.
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The agency, DIICOT, said the British nationals recruited women who were subjected to “physical violence and psychological coercion”, sexually abused by members of the group and forced to perform in pornography with the aim of obtaining “significant financial gain”. forced to.
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The Tate brothers were not named in the statement. Photos published by Romanian media outlets showed Tate being taken away in handcuffs by masked law enforcement officers.
DIICOT said it has identified six people who were sexually abused by the organized criminal group and raided five houses on Thursday. The suspects have been kept in custody for 24 hours.
Earlier this week, Tate posted a video on Twitter of a mountainous region in the Eastern European country of Romania, where he is reported to have lived for the past five years.
Tate also became embroiled in a war of words with 19-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg this week after she shared a photo of herself standing next to a Bugatti on Twitter and bragged that she owned 33 cars.
Video footage of the police raid shows several tarnished sports cars, wads of cash and a handgun, along with a statement from the Anti-Organised Crime Agency.