Andrew Tate, his brother Tristan and two Romanian men were “detained” in Bucharest in connection with a long-term investigation into human trafficking.

Tate, a former professional kickboxer, and his brother Tristan were detained on Thursday for an initial 24 hours alongside two Romanian suspects, prosecutors from the anti- organised crime unit said in a statement after raiding their properties in Bucharest…

Prosecutors said the Tate brothers had been under criminal investigation since April.

“The four suspects … appear to have created an organised crime group with the purpose of recruiting, housing and exploiting women by forcing them to create pornographic content meant to be seen on specialised websites for a cost,” prosecutors said in a statement late on Thursday…

Prosecutors said they had found six women who had been sexually exploited by the suspects.

Here’s more on what the group is believed to have done. It’s not specified who was transporting women to Romania or who is accused of raping one of the victims:

The anti-organized crime agency alleged that the four unnamed suspects formed an organized criminal group that stretched from Romania to Britain and the United States, for the purpose of committing the crime of human trafficking.

The authorities allege that two of the suspects misled the victims “into believing that they intended to enter into a marriage/cohabitation relationship” while transporting victims to Romania and later sexually exploiting them with physical violence and coercion.

Authorities also said one of the suspects raped a victim on two separate occasions in March 2022.

There’s video of the police raid:

Footage of the raid on Andrew Tate and Tristan’s villa in Romania was released pic.twitter.com/SQY9m3VKp7

— Dexerto (@Dexerto) December 30, 2022

And video of the arrest/detention:

Andrew Tate while being arrested:

“The matrix has attacked me” pic.twitter.com/POGkeYAPy3

— Kevin smith (@KJ00355197) December 30, 2022

At some point Tate tweeted this:

The Matrix sent their agents.

— Andrew Tate (@Cobratate) December 30, 2022

Today isn’t the first time that Tate has been accused of human trafficking. He spoke about an earlier visit from the police during an interview with Tucker Carlson in August.

Tucker Carlson asks Andrew Tate about human trafficking allegations in this August interview.pic.twitter.com/VLInET6XqJ

— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) December 29, 2022

This week, he got in a Twitter fight with climate activist Greta Thunberg.

Hello @GretaThunberg

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.

Please provide your email address so I can send a complete list of my car collection and their respective enormous emissions. pic.twitter.com/ehhOBDQyYU

— Andrew Tate (@Cobratate) December 27, 2022

She replied to that comment:

yes, please do enlighten me. email me at [email protected] https://t.co/V8geeVvEvg

— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) December 28, 2022

Tate released a video in response to Thunberg several hours later. Near the end of this he accepts a couple of pizzas.

Thank you for confirming via your email address that you have a small penis @GretaThunberg

The world was curious.

And I do agree you should get a life ❤️ https://t.co/mHmiKHjDGH pic.twitter.com/SMisajQRcf

— Andrew Tate (@Cobratate) December 28, 2022

Some are claiming that the pizza boxes in that clip played a role in his arrest. For example:

The Romanian pizza chain appearing in Andrew Tate’s response video to Greta Thunberg was reportedly used as proof for Romanian authorities to confirm his presence in the country, leading to the arrest of him and his brother in a human trafficking probe pic.twitter.com/MD0cved7q5

— Dexerto (@Dexerto) December 29, 2022

The claim that the pizza boxes had something to do with the arrest came from trans activist Alejandra Caraballo (Beege wrote about her here).

Romanian authorities needed proof that Andrew Tate was in the country so they reportedly used his social media posts. His ridiculous video yesterday featured a pizza from a Romanian pizza chain, Jerry's Pizza, confirming he was in the country.

This is absolutely epic. pic.twitter.com/kyz4pqegkJ

— Alejandra Caraballo (@Esqueer_) December 29, 2022

As you can see, that claim went viral but there’s no indication it’s true. In fact, Caraballo posted a long thread this morning which ended with this admission that she had made assumptions but there was no evidence this had anything to do with Tate’s arrest.

Do I think that this was the defining piece of evidence for the police? Absolutely not. I do believe that it could have been used to easily place Andrew Tate at his home in Romania within a tight timeframe. It could also be verified by calling the pizza location.

— Alejandra Caraballo (@Esqueer_) December 30, 2022

More apologizing:

I'm absolutely astonished at how viral my post went and did not intend to mislead anyone. It's based on my the evidence and reporting I had at the time.

— Alejandra Caraballo (@Esqueer_) December 30, 2022

Anyway, the whole pizza box thing has gotten a lot of attention but Ben Dreyfuss has written a whole post saying it’s not true. Nevertheless, it’s out there now and Greta Thunberg turned it into another joke which has been liked more than 2 million times so this pizza box story will probably live on forever.

this is what happens when you don’t recycle your pizza boxes

— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) December 30, 2022

Finally, I’m also seeing some claims that Tate and his brother have been released but while that’s circulating on Twitter I haven’t seen it confirmed in any media reports yet. There is a video of Tate and his brother leaving a police station but he’s wearing different clothes than the ones he was arrested in so I’m thinking that video might be from earlier this year. Anyway, I’ll update this post if I see anything solid about it.

Update: The Associated Press uses the word “arrest” which other outlets have been avoiding after Tate’s lawyer denied he’d been arrested.

Ramona Bolla, a spokesperson from Romania’s anti-organized crime agency, DIICOT, confirmed their arrest in a phone call with The Associated Press on Friday, and said prosecutors have asked a judge at the Bucharest tribunal to extend the arrest warrant to 30 days. She said a decision is expected later Friday.

DIICOT said in a statement late Thursday that the four suspects in the case, which include two British citizens and two Romanians, were arrested on charges of being part of an organized crime group, human trafficking and rape.

Also, here’s the final word on the pizza box story.

Bolla, from DIICOT, refuted widespread claims in the media that an address brandished on a pizza box that featured in a video posted by Andrew Tate on Twitter earlier this week led authorities to his arrest. She said the claims are “funny, but no.”

It didn’t happen and Alejandra Caraballo is responsible for this lie traveling around the world.