Police have raided the home of social media influencer Andrew Tate in Romania. DIICOT, the country’s organized crime law enforcement agency, said the raid was connected to an investigation into human trafficking, the trafficking of minors, sexual contact with minors, and money laundering. A Tate spokesperson, Mateea Petrescu, said the search warrant’s content was “not fully clarified” but did not comment further except to say the controversial influencer had a legal team acting in his defense.
Dozens of police officers reportedly trawled through Tate’s home on the outskirts of the Romanian capital, Bucharest. In a statement, DIICOT said the suspected trafficker enjoys all rights available under Romanian law, including the presumption of innocence.
Tate was first arrested in 2022 and detained for almost a year before his release last August. He is awaiting trial and is under continued investigation for crimes including rape, human trafficking, and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women. After his most recent arrest, he took to Twitter and wrote, “The Matrix is real. And they have a tried and true playbook.” He went on to claim that authorities are attempting to “slander” him to silence his voice.
Andrew Tate describes himself as a misogynist and has been banned from several social media platforms for expressing misogynistic views. He rose to fame after appearing on Britain’s Big Brother reality show in 2016, from which he was expelled when video footage emerged of him apparently violently attacking a woman. Tate insisted the video was doctored and those responsible were trying to make him “look bad.”
Born to a US Air Force family in Britain in 1986, he moved to the United States as a child but returned to the UK when his parents divorced. The influencer has repeatedly claimed he is the victim of persecution and that he is on earth to do God’s work. His first social media ban was from Twitter after he said women bear some responsibility when they are raped. When Elon Musk took over the platform, he reinstated Tate’s account.
A group of women are also using Twitter to raise funds for civil legal cases they have filed against for allegedly sexually assaulting them.
