Andrew Tate, a former kickboxing champion turned controversial social media influencer, was arrested on Thursday (December 29th) in Romania along with his brother. The two men were wanted in connection with an investigation for human trafficking, rape and organized crime. Their arrest follows exchanges with activist Greta Thunberg on Twitter.
Andrew Tate had a heated exchange this week, which went viral, with Greta Thunberg on social networks, in which he congratulated himself on emitting a lot of greenhouse gases with his collection of big cars. The former kick-boxer known for his masculinist and ultra-rightist remarks would have betrayed his whereabouts with images of a pizza box.
In a video posted to Twitter where he speaks to climate activist Greta Thunberg, the British influencer appears seated at a table being brought to him two boxes of pizza, two boxes ” not recyclable “, he insists. But two boxes on which appears the name of a Romanian sign, which would have confirmed to the investigators the location of Andrew Tate and facilitated his arrest.
This information was not confirmed by the Romanian police, but it earned this comment from Greta Thunberg: ” This is what happens when you don’t recycle your pizza boxes. The day before, the environmental activist had responded with irony to a first provocation from the former sportsman, who boasted of owning a large number of highly polluting sports cars.
Suspected of exploiting women and forcing them to create pornographic content
According to BBC, the ex-kickboxer, a British citizen born in the United States, has been in Romania for five years. The prosecution has been investigating since the beginning of 2021 and had already searched a villa of Andrew Tate last April. He and his brother are suspected of having creates an organized gang with the aim of recruiting, housing and exploiting women by forcing them to create pornographic content “. Six potential victims have been identified at this stage.
Andrew and Tristan Tate are to be held in custody for twenty-four hours. The court must decide on a possible pre-trial detention of 30 days.
(and with AFP)