Right-wing influencer Andrew Tate was arrested at his home in Piperia, Romania on human trafficking and rape charges after local authorities were tipped off by Tate's response video to environmentalist Greta Thunberg on Twitter, according to the Romanian publication Gândul.
Tate and his brother Tristan were arrested at Tate's private villa; police officers also arrested a former policewoman whose involvement had been suspected for some time.
All three are in the custody of the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DICOT), a Romanian agency tasked with investigating and prosecuting organized crime and terrorism-related offenses.
\u201cAndrew Tate arrested at his home in Romania following a raid by police.\u201d— Durden Lebowski (@Durden Lebowski) 1672348302
\u201cAndrew Tate\u2019s home in Romania has been raided by Romanian police in relation to the abduction of two girls. \n\nThis was later confirmed by paparazzi shots published by SpyNews.\n\nThis is who Elon Musk let\u2019s back on twitter?\u201d— Ryan Pinesworth\u2122\ufe0f (@Ryan Pinesworth\u2122\ufe0f) 1672349815
Authorities were able to ascertain Tate's location when he posted a response video to Thunberg after she shut down his request for her email address while bragging about his car collection's "enormous emissions" with the following response:
"Yes, please enlighten me."
"Email me at smalldickenergy@getalife.com."
\u201cyes, please do enlighten me. email me at smalldickenergy@getalife.com\u201d— Greta Thunberg (@Greta Thunberg) 1672225626
Tate later uploaded his video and mocked Thunberg for having a "small penis" though he could not have known authorities would be able to find his location because he unwittingly displayed a pizza box from a local Romanian pizza chain.
You can see Tate's video below.
\u201cThank you for confirming via your email address that you have a small penis @GretaThunberg \n\nThe world was curious. \n\nAnd I do agree you should get a life \u2764\ufe0f\u201d— Andrew Tate (@Andrew Tate) 1672262783
Tate is accused of "forming an organized criminal group that used girls for adult videos," and DICOT said its officers raided five homes tied to four suspects who sequestered at least six women captive in houses in the Bucharest metropolitan area.
The women were sexually assaulted and forced to produce pornographic videos while in captivity.
Tate's arrest comes months after his home was first raided by DICOT agents after the United States embassy alerted them an American woman might be held at the property.
In April 2022, investigators discovered two women on the property who claimed they were being held there against their will, kicking off an investigation into possible human trafficking and rape. The Tate brothers were released after several hours of questioning and Tate denied any wrongdoing.
The news of Tate's arrest—and the circumstances that led to it—made him the subject of both heated criticism and mockery online.
\u201c@Mesnia1016 @Lucialicious22 @Pleightx\u201d— Paul Leigh 'Some Rascal on the Internet' \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6 (@Paul Leigh 'Some Rascal on the Internet' \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6) 1672356076
\u201cRomanian authorities needed proof that Andrew Tate was in the country so they reportedly used his social media posts. His ridiculous video yesterday featured a pizza from a Romanian pizza chain, Jerry's Pizza, confirming he was in the country.\n\nThis is absolutely epic.\u201d— Alejandra Caraballo (@Alejandra Caraballo) 1672350192
\u201cloling right now how he confirmed his own location in romania with this post (romanian pizza chain) which led to him being arrested. greta literally KOd him\u201d— Bes D. Marx (@Bes D. Marx) 1672352365
\u201chttps://t.co/UDAHPhYHmJ\u201d— KnowNothing (@KnowNothing) 1672351330
\u201che went through his wardrobe, selected, put on and carefully adjusted this Versace robe to tastefully (?) show off enough chest, set up his camera, went to his study and lit a cigar so he could respond to a 19 year old ratio-ing him on twitter. ponder upon this.\u201d— \u0634\u0643\u064a\u0646\u0629 (@\u0634\u0643\u064a\u0646\u0629) 1672317076
\u201cImagine trying to convince men to subscribe to your programme on how to be a \u201cTop G\u201d and then make a video where you\u2019re clearly fully rattled by a 19 year old girl\u201d— Georgeclarkeey (@Georgeclarkeey) 1672323379
\u201cThis is one of the most pathetic things I\u2019ve ever seen\u201d— B\u00ce\u043c\u00ce\u03b7\u00ce (@B\u00ce\u043c\u00ce\u03b7\u00ce) 1672336732
\u201ccan y'all imagine \u201cincel influencer accidentally gives away his location with pizza boxes when making reply video to young climate activist who owned him, getting himself arrested for human trafficking\u201d as the ending of a mob movie\u201d— ash (vampire era again) (@ash (vampire era again)) 1672351789
\u201cImagine being the jury sitting on his trafficking case who will have to watch videos like these for weeks\u201d— B0l (@B0l) 1672352049
\u201cI may not get owned by women often, but when I do it\u2019s by a 19 year old Scandinavian \n\n-Most uninteresting man in the world.\u201d— L S D-ish (@L S D-ish) 1672327550
\u201cthe video that led to his arrest for human trafficking is the first time i\u2019ve heard this dudes voice and I cannot believe i*cels worship a man that sounds like THAT absolutely hilarious, no notes\u201d— \u2640\ufe0f (@\u2640\ufe0f) 1672355709
Thunberg returned with the perfect follow-up tweet:
\u201cthis is what happens when you don\u2019t recycle your pizza boxes\u201d— Greta Thunberg (@Greta Thunberg) 1672387518
Tate rose to fame as a professional kickboxer but eventually began to make headlines for his homophobic, racist and misogynist comments on Twitter.
He came under fire for his tweets describing his view of what qualifies as sexual harassment amid the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse cases and for tweeting several statements about his view sexual assault victims share responsibility for their assaults.
Tate has described himself as "absolutely a sexist" and "absolutely a misogynist" upon rising to fame in right-wing circles following appearances on shows like Infowars, which is run by the noted conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
Tate's social media presence has been criticized by anti-extremism advocacy groups that have expressed concerns about how he has stoked misogyny among the far-right, particularly for expressing his belief that women are "given to the man and belong to the man" and his claim that men prefer dating teenage girls because they are likely to have had sex with fewer men, though he later attempted to walk back his remarks.
