On December 29, 2023, Andrew Tate and his brother, Tristan Tate were detained in Romania by authorities as a part of a human trafficking and rape investigation. Additionally, Andrew Tate had his house raided in the Capital, Bucharest after Romania’s Directorate for organized crime and terrorism issued a statement that two British citizens and two Romanian citizens were suspected of being part of a human trafficking group. Moreover, the statement released stated, “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,” DIICOT said in a statement.  

Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan Tate first blew up and gained much popularity on Tik Tok and other social media platforms for being misogynist influencers. Although Andrew Tate has been courting fame for years, his videos began gaining millions of views when controversial clips of his angry debates as well as shady entrepreneurial advice went viral on Tik Tok. Aside from making controversial clips about male dominance, female submission, and wealth, Andrew Tate is also known for tweeting hateful things about women which is what ultimately resulted in his account getting banned after Tate tweeted in the aftermath of the Harvey Weinstein allegations, “If you put yourself in a position to be raped, you must bare [sic] some responsibility”. Ultimately this kind of behavior is central to Tate’s brand that a straight-talking hustler who films himself alongside exotic cars and models while wearing bathrobes and smoking cigars, implying that by following his advice, you too could his lifestyle. 

Moreover, the Tate brothers seem to be detained in a detention center where the prosecutor says they applied to hold the influencer for an additional thirty days at the center to investigate these allegations thoroughly. In addition, the DICOT (organized crime and terrorism) has so far defined six victims who say they were sexually exploited by Tate’s group. Authorities also said one of the suspects raped a victim on two separate occasions in March 2022. However, the arrest has once again brought Andrews Tate’s name into discourse, Andrew himself does not seem to be affected by the charges and allegations pressed against him as the Friday following his arrest, Andrew Tate tweeted from his verified account, “The Matrix sent their agents”.

On January 10, the Romanian court rejected the controversial media star’s appeal for his 30-day detention on charges of human trafficking, organized crime, and rape. The Tate brothers are expected to appear in a Bucharest court next week to have their appeals heard against a judge’s decision to extend their arrest warrant from 24 hours to 30 days. Additionally, the Tate brothers will also appeal against the seizure of some of their belongings including seven of their exotic cars and properties that have been seized by authorities prior to the media star’s dramatic arrest that captured worldwide attention.