Romanian court extends Andrew Tate detention over human trafficking, rape charges

A Romanian court late on Friday extended the detention of former kickboxer Andrew Tate for 30 days after he was arrested on suspicion of human trafficking, rape and forming an organized crime group, Reuters first confirmed.

Tate was arrested Thursday along with his brother Tristan and two other suspects after Romanian authorities raided their Bucharest properties and held them for 24 hours. 

Prosecutors then petitioned the court to extend their detention.

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Tate’s lawyer, Eugen Constantin Vidineac, reportedly responded to the court’s decision and told reporters: “From our perspective, there are no grounds…for taking this most drastic preventive measure, but it is the judge’s prerogative.”

Tate and his three alleged partners had reportedly been under a criminal investigation since April after they were suspected of being involved in a human trafficking scheme in which at least six women were sexually exploited.

“The four suspects…appear to have created an organized crime group with the purpose of recruiting, housing and exploiting women by forcing them to create pornographic content meant to be seen on specialized websites for a cost,” prosecutors said. “They would have gained important sums of money.”

Reports on Friday suggested that Tate’s renewed social media presence on Twitter may have led to his own arrest. 

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The former kickboxer and controversial internet personality had been banned from Twitter for posting misogynistic and hateful comments before he was reinstated by billionaire Elon Musk last month.

Tate sparked a Twitter spat with climate activist Greta Thunberg by posting a picture of himself filling up his Bugatti before then asking for her email address so he could “send a complete list of [his] car collection and their respective enormous emissions.”

Thunberg responded and said, “Yes, please do enlighten me. email me at smalld—energy@getalife.com.”

The activist’s response then prompted Tate to appear in a video on his Twitter wearing a red robe, smoking a cigar and receiving a pizza order before he proceeded to berate Thunberg. 

Tate also told the unseen person who handed him the pizza to make sure the “boxes [were] not recycled.”

But according to some reports, the “Jerry’s Pizza” boxes alerted Romanian authorities to the fact that he was in the country.

Fox News Digital could not independently verify that Tate’s pizza delivery led to his subsequent arrest. 

Thunberg took to Twitter early Friday to say, “this is what happens when you don’t recycle your pizza boxes.”