Controversial internet personality Andrew Tate has been arrested on suspicion of human trafficking, rape and forming an organised crime group.
The former kickboxer, who rose to fame when he appeared on Big Brother in 2016, and his brother Tristan were arrested in Romania on Thursday evening.
Prosecutors from the anti-organised-crime unit confirmed that the pair will be detained for 24 hours alongside two Romanian suspects.
They said in a statement: “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.”
“They would have gained important sums of money.”
The brothers, who have been under criminal investigation since April, have declined to comment, but their lawyer confirmed they had been detained.
New footage of Andrew Tate's arrest pic.twitter.com/PvuMQtgyKa
— Remarks (@Remarks) December 29, 2022
Prosecutors said six people had been identified who had been sexually exploited by the “organised criminal group”.
They said the victims were recruited by “British citizens misrepresenting their intention to enter into a marriage or cohabitation relationship and the existence of genuine feelings of love”.
Prosecutors said the victims were then taken to Romania’s Ilfov county where “by exercising acts of physical violence and mental coercion – through intimidation, constant surveillance, control and invoking alleged debts – they were sexually exploited by group members by forcing them to perform demonstrations pornographic for the purpose of producing and disseminating through social media platforms material having such a character and by submitting to the execution of a forced labour”.
Andrew appeared on Big Brother in 2016, but he was removed from the programme after a video surfaced online which allegedly showed him attacking a woman with a belt.
He was banned from Twitter in 2017 over his misogynistic views and hate speech, but was reinstated last month.
Andrew, who has described himself as the “king of toxic masculinity”, has previously suggested rape victims “bear some responsibility” for being attacked and has described women as “property” belonging to men.
The 36-year-old’s arrest comes shortly after he was slammed by Greta Thunberg in a viral Twitter exchange.
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