Former professional kickboxer and controversial internet personality Andrew Tate was detained in Romania Thursday, along with his brother, on suspicion of human trafficking, Reuters reports.
Tate and his brother Tristan were arrested, along with two Romanian nationals, Romanian prosecutors told Reuters.
“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,” prosecutors said in a statement obtained by Reuters.
Prosecutors also said that six women came forward to claim they’d been sexually exploited by the suspects, Reuters reported.
Lawyers for the Tate brothers confirmed to Reuters that they had been taken into custody. They will be held for at least 24 hours, prosecutors told Reuters.
Tate is known for spreading hate speech, misogyny and violence. In August, he was banned from both Facebook and Instagram for violating Meta’s policies on dangerous organizations and individuals. He has also been banned from posting to YouTube.
In 2017, he was suspended from Twitter for saying women “bear responsibility” for being sexually assaulted, this as allegations against disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein were pouring in. He was reinstated to Twitter last month after Elon Musk took ownership of the company.
Earlier this week, Tate got into a Twitter feud with climate activist Greta Thunberg.
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