Officials from the Department for Combating Organized Crime (DIICOT) carried out a search of Tate’s villa in the village of Voluntari, north of Bucharest, on Thursday, Romanian media reported. Tate and his brother Tristan were arrested during the raid and questioned by prosecutors.
The police officially announced that they had taken “two British nationals” into custody. A total of five locations were carried out in the course of investigations into a criminal organization accused of human trafficking and rape.
Physical violence and coercion
Investigators accuse the former kickboxer and his brother of using physical violence and mental coercion to force women to participate in pornographic videos. According to a statement from DIICOT, the six victims identified so far were recruited using the loverboy method. They were lured with promises of love and marriage.
After that, the women and girls were detained with violence and intimidation in different apartments in Bucharest. There they were forced to have sex and appear in pornographic videos, which were later released on social media. One of the victims was also raped twice by one of the inmates.
Portal/Inquam Photos/Octav Ganea Tate was arrested on Thursday and questioned by prosecutors
In addition to the two Britons, Romanian helpers are also being investigated, local media reported. A former police officer would be among the suspects. Weapons, money and luxury cars were seized during the raids, according to a video released by police. The Tate home was searched in April for similar allegations.
Britain’s Daily Mirror quoted a Tate spokesman as saying details of the arrest reports could not be given at this time. “However, Andrew and Tristan Tate have the utmost respect for the Romanian authorities and will help in any way they can.”
Fight with Thunberg and a pizza box
The former kickboxer was banned from various social media platforms for his misogynistic and hateful comments. He was also unable to post to Twitter for years – until new Twitter boss Elon Musk lifted the ban. In recent days, the 36-year-old has fought with climate activist Thunberg.
Tate addressed Thunberg directly in a tweet bragging about his car collection and its emissions. The Swede then mocked the 36-year-old. The tweet spread like wildfire across the platform, followed by a video response from Tate – in a red bathrobe, cigar in mouth.
The clip showed a pizza box with Romanian inscriptions, which the police allegedly tracked down. However, on December 25, Tate tweeted a video he claims was taken while hiking in Romania. According to the police report, the online activities of Tate and his brother Tristan, who was also arrested, gave investigators an indication that the two Britons were in the country.
In light of media reports that this box of pizza provided an indication of Tate’s whereabouts, prosecutor DIICOT spokeswoman said when asked by dpa: “These are amusing speculations.” Happens if you don’t recycle your pizza boxes.”
Long list of misogynistic statements
Tate was born in the US capital, Washington, and grew up in Luton, England. Her father was chess player Emory Tate. The former kickboxer rose to fame in 2016 as a short-lived contestant on the UK edition of “Big Brother”. He was forced to leave the show after video surfaced of Tate hitting a woman with a belt. Tate explained at the time that the shot had been altered to cast him in unbalanced light.
On social media, the former athlete presented himself as a sexist and self-help guru for young people and men with a mania for expensive cars, becoming known for misogynistic statements. He explained that rape victims are partly to blame for the attacks. In the videos, he indulged in fantasies of violence against women. He himself prefers 18- or 19-year-old partners because he can still “put his stamp” on women of that age. He also described women as the property of man and denied them the ability to drive a car.
Links to the far right
Despite her hateful and misogynistic comments, Tate has been very successful on social media. According to the Guardian, videos of him have been viewed more than eleven billion times on the TikTok platform, from which he was banned, followed by 740,000 Tates YouTube accounts. In 2022, the 36-year-old was one of the most searched people on Google. Tate has since been blocked by Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok, but videos of him continue to circulate.
A targeted campaign played a big part in Tate’s meteoric rise on social media, Britain’s Observer newspaper reported in the summer. With help from members of Tate’s online gym and their own accounts, TikTok’s algorithm was manipulated in Tate’s favor, the paper wrote. The online academy, which has now closed according to the “Observador”, recently had almost 130,000 participants, some of whom are very young, who paid around 47 euros a month for membership.
Tate also had links to the far right and conspiracy theorists. He is a proponent of the “Red Pill Theory” and was a guest on the Alex Jones podcast. He invited Mike Cernovich, among others, to his own podcast. During the 2016 United States presidential election campaign, Cernovich spread the conspiracy theory known as “Pizzagate”, according to which a child pornography ring involving Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was operating out of a pizza parlor in Washington DC.