Andrew Tate's Arrest In Romania Explained
"It's bang out the machete, boom in her face and grip her by the neck. Shut up b****," The Guardian quotes kickboxer-turned-online influencer Andrew Tate in one of his many social media rants regarding women. The U.K.-born Tate grew to fame through his portrayal of a luxury goods-based, machismo-saturated, violently misogynist lifestyle that got him banned, one by one, from TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram despite having billions of collective views, as the BBC explains. At minimum, per Euronews, Tate thinks women shouldn't leave the house or drive cars. At maximum, as The Guardian puts it, he's a veritable cult leader "capable of radicalizing men and boys to commit harm offline." And now, he's been arrested and accused of crimes that may come as no shock given his extreme, vicious views: human trafficking and rape.
Tate moved to Bucharest, Romania five years ago to "evade rape allegations" in the U.K., as he himself said (per Euronews). In April this year, Romanian authorities received a tip that Tate was holding a woman against her will in his house; they've apparently been keeping an eye on him ever since. This past Thursday, December 29, Romanian authorities announced (per the BBC) that they'd arrested "two British citizens" for creating "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." Meanwhile, Balaklava-wearing authorities were photographed escorting Tate and his brother Tristan out of their house.
If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
Recruitment for the purpose of forced sexual acts
Andrew Tate came into the public eye in 2016 when he was kicked off of the British reality TV show "Big Brother" because of video footage showing him striking a woman with a belt, as Euronews explains. Tate said that the woman had agreed to the violence. Shortly after this he fled the country and moved to Romania, and since then struck up relationships with right-wing figures such as Nigel Farage and Alex Jones. Meanwhile, if the allegations are to be believed, Tate lured women into a human trafficking operation using the "loverboy" method. As the Netherlands government website says, this method traditionally involves a long-term, slow seduction that exploits vulnerable young women. The internet, however — Tate's domain — gives potential human traffickers much easier and faster access to people's lives.
As the BBC says, Romania's Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism identified six women allegedly manipulated by Tate and his brother Tristan for the purpose of producing pornographic content online. Held captive under threat of violence, the women were purportedly forced to perform sexual acts. Authorities haven't released any further information about Tate and Tristan's activities, but their alleged operation was organized enough to be considered a criminal enterprise. Police did, however, release footage from their raid, which reportedly showed weapons and money displayed like trophies in one of the rooms of Tate's house.
If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
The pizza box connection
There's another bizarre and tangential element to this story involving two unlikely elements: a pizza delivery and climate justice activist — as her Twitter profile describes her — Greta Thunberg. On December 27, for whatever reason, Andrew Tate boasted to Thunberg on Twitter about the number of cars he owned and how many emissions they produce. Among other things, he wrote, "I have 33 cars. My Bugatti has a w16 8.0L quad turbo. My TWO Ferrari 812 competizione have 6.5L v12s. This is just the start." To this, Thunberg on Twitter adroitly replied, "Yes, please do enlighten me. Email me at smalld***energy@getalife.com." Tate, it should be noted, slunk his way back to Twitter after Elon Musk lifted his ban from the platform, as the BBC says.
In response to Thunberg's rejoinder, Tate posted a video of himself on Twitter mocking Thunberg while smoking a cigar in a leather bathrobe and sitting in a leather chair. In the video, someone hands him a couple of pizzas while he talks about Thunberg being a "slave of the Matrix." The pizza boxes, he says, are "not recycled." As Euronews states, some have speculated that this video somehow gave away Tate's location, and this is why he was arrested so shortly thereafter; the BBC denies such a connection. After the announcement of Tate's arrest, Thunberg went back on Twitter and wrote, "This is what happens when you don't recycle your pizza boxes."