Controversial British-American influencer Andrew Tate was arrested Thursday in Romania as part of a human trafficking and rape investigation.
The former kickboxing champion was arrested along with his brother, Tristan, after their home in the Romanian capital Bucharest was raided.
A lawyer for the brothers confirmed the arrest, which came hours after Tate made headlines for a confrontation he had on social media with young environmental activist Greta Thunberg.
The brothers have been under investigation since April along with two Romanian nationals.
"The four suspects ... appear to have created an organized crime group for the purpose of recruiting, harboring and exploiting women by forcing them to create pornographic content intended for viewing on specialized websites in exchange for money," prosecutors said, Reuters reported.
Tate gained notoriety as a kickboxing fighter and then for his participation in the UK version of the reality show Big Brother. He became a social media celebrity by spreading misogynistic comments which caused Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Tik Tok and Instagram to suspend his accounts.
But Twitter reinstated him after the social network was acquired by tycoon Elon Musk. Tate started a Twitter spat with climate change activist Greta Thunberg a few days ago. To one of Greta's comments, Tate responded with a video where you can see some boxes of a chain of pizzerias in Romania, Internet users have speculated that this video would have given them a clue to the authorities to locate and arrest him.
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