Andrew Tate reportedly arrested for human trafficking after posting Greta Thunberg rant

30 December, 2022

Andrew Tate

Andrew Tate has reportedly been arrested today (December 29) in Romania for human trafficking after posting a video rant in response to Greta Thunberg.

The former Big Brother contestant and anti-feminist and far-right commentator had tried to spark an argument with the climate activist on Twitter earlier this week by posting a photo of himself fuelling up a Bugatti and boasting about his vehicles in the caption. “This is just the start,” he added. “Please provide your email address so I can send a complete list of my car collection and their respective enormous emissions.”

Thunberg had replied, telling him: “Yes, please do enlighten me. Email me at smalldickenergy@getalife.com.”

After another tweet from Tate failed to get a response from Thunberg, he then posted a bizarre video message, which reportedly helped secure his arrest. According to the Romanian newspaper Gândul, Tate and his brother Tristan were arrested in Bucharest and will be detained for 24 hours. A former policewoman accused of being involved in the alleged trafficking has also been arrested.

Gândul also reported that authorities had been waiting for the Tate brothers to return to Romania, where they live, and were tipped off by their social media presence that they were in the country today. It has been speculated on social media that a pizza box in Tate’s video message to Thunberg could have been the evidence the police needed that he was in Romania, although this has yet to be confirmed.

The paper said the US Embassy in the country had received a complaint in April that a woman with American citizenship was being held at the Tates’ home without consent. It claimed authorities had learned that the pair had a video chat studio 500 metres from their villa, where several women were later found.

A woman with American citizenship and a woman from Moldova were among them and alleged they were being held against their will. During an interview with Fox Nation’s Tucker Carlson, however, Andrew Tate claimed he was a victim of “swatting” – an act where people make hoax phone calls reporting serious crimes with the aim of sending armed police forces to someone’s home.

“I was not arrested,” Tate said. “What happened is I suffered from a case of swatting. It’s very popular with people who are large on the internet.

“[Police] turned up, they investigated, they realized nobody was in the house against their will, there was no crime committed […] we had to go to the police station for 45 minutes for pieces of paper, we filled them in and we were let go.”

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