On Thursday, Andrew Tate, a British-born, MAGA-supporting influencer, was arrested in Romania on charges of human trafficking and rape.
The Directorate for the Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) announced that their officers had raided five homes connected to four suspects as part of an investigation into organized crime, human trafficking, and rape.
The four suspects, two Romanian citizens and two British citizens, allegedly kept six women captives in houses outside Bucharest and subjected them to sexual assault and forced pornography. Tate, who rose to online fame with his support of former US president Donald Trump, is currently in police custody.
Two British citizens were identified by Romanian newspaper Gândul and Romania TV as Tate, a British-American kickboxer with a reputation for misogynistic online behaviour and flaunting his 33 cars, and his brother, Tristan.
Pictures of Tate’s arrest show the kickboxer in a black leather jacket and hoodie being escorted by police in tactical gear and footage obtained by Gândul and Romania TV showed both brothers in handcuffs.
Official footage of the raids released by DIICOT showed heavily armed police storming luxury homes and confiscating cash, guns, bars of gold and expensive cars.
On Thursday, Romanian authorities uncovered a human trafficking scheme in which several women were held against their will in five homes across the country. According to Romania TV and Gândul, the scheme unraveled when one of the victims, an American woman, managed to send her location to her boyfriend, who then alerted the U.S. Embassy.
Upon raiding the five homes, police found “several” victims, including the American woman and a young woman from the Republic of Moldova. The victims had allegedly been threatened with physical and mental coercion.
Romania’s Directorate is handling the investigation for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT).
On Thursday, rapper Tate attempted to clap back at environmental activist Greta Thunberg, but his response may have led authorities to his doorstep.
The singer posted a video online in which he was seen smoking a cigar and trying to brush off the online spat. Inadvertently, he also revealed a pizza box from a local pizza chain, which alerted Romanian authorities looking for him to his whereabouts.
Consequently, four suspects were arrested and ordered detained for 24 hours for questioning by the Romanian Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT).