Why has Andrew Tate been arrested? Did Greta Thunberg pizza video on Twitter lead to police raid in Romania

Far-right social media influencer Andrew Tate has lost his appeal against a 30-day detention in Romania, after he was arrested on suspicion of human trafficking and rape. The social media influencer was arrested alongside his brother, Tristian Tate, on 29 December for an initial period of 24 hours.

An arrest extention was granted by the Romanian judge on 30 December, allowing the police to hold Tate, 36, and his brother for a 30-day period. His appeal against this extention has now been refused.

Tate has found himself consistently hitting the headlines recently, after being announced dead by Piers Morgan’s hacked Twitter account to being mocked online for his attempt at boasting about his 33 cars with “enormous emissions” to climate activist Greta Thunberg.

This is what you need to know about the current situation.

Why has Andrew Tate been arrested?

According to a report from the Reuters news agency, prosecutors said: “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.”

A lawyer for the brothers has reportedly confirmed their detention. Tate and his brother have been under investigation since April alongside two Romanian nationals.

On 11 April 2022, Tate’s house in Romania was raided by authorities after the US embassy alerted police that an American woman was potentially being held at the property. Two women were found who claimed that they were being kept against their will, sparking the Directorate for Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) human trafficking and rape investigation.

After being questioned for around five hours, both the brothers were released, with Tate telling Fox News’ Tucker Carlson that month that the incident was a result of “swatting”, which refers to when a person sends the authorities to a person’s address without any cause.

What has DIICOT said?

Romania’s DIICOT has issued a statement on the raid and the arrests, but did not name the Tate brothers specifically, instead stating that two British citizens and two Romanian citizens were suspected of being part of a criminal group focused on human trafficking.

It said that, in this case, “it was noted that, at the beginning of 2021, four suspects (two British citizens and two Romanian citizens) constituted a criminal group organised in order to commit on the territory of Romania, but also of other countries, such as the United States of America and Great Britain, of the crime of human trafficking”.

The statement explained that “so far, six injured persons have been identified who were sexually exploited by the organised criminal group”. It also released a video of the raid, showing guns, knives, and money on display in one room.

Tate is known for his extremely misogynistic views, and in an old YouTube video of his, he said that “40% of the reason” for moving to Romania was due to its relatively relaxed sexual assault laws - he said that he likes “the idea of just being able to do what I want”.

In the past, Tate has also said that rape victims must “bear some responsibility” for putting themselves in “a position to be raped”.

How did the authorities find him?

Following the news of Tate’s arrest, it has been speculated online that it was the appearance of a pizza box in a video he recently posted to Twitter that led authorities to his location.

On Tuesday (27 December), Tate had tagged Thunberg in a tweet to brag about his excessive number of cars, and asked Thunberg to supply her email address so that he could provide her with a complete breakdown of their “enormous emissions”.

Thunberg responded to Tate by tweeting: “Yes, please do enlighten me. Email me at [email protected].”

Tate initially replied to Thunberg by tweeting “How dare you?!”, before following up with a video with the caption: “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 [heart emoji].”

In the two minute long video, Tate ranted that Thunberg was “a slave of the matrix” and that the “global matrix got this bot farm to like and retweet and all this bot commenting try and pretend that her telling me that she has a small dick in her own email address somehow teaches me a lesson”.

At one point, Tate addressed someone off camera, telling them to bring him pizza and to ensure that the boxes “are not recycled” before continuing. It was down to the logo on said pizza boxes that people believe led police to his whereabouts.

Civil rights attorney Alejandra Caraballo tweeted: “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.”

Not everyone is convinced by the theory, with one person writing: “I feel like this “Andrew Tate doxxed by pizza box” theory maybe has some holes. How would authorities not have known he entered the country anyway? It’s publicly known where he lives - why would they need a pizza box to enter? Idk maybe I’m missing something.”

Another tweeted: “Seeing quite a few super viral tweets claiming Andrew Tate’s arrest was due to a pizza brand in a video he released in response to Greta Thunberg yesterday. What’s the source for this claim? Do people genuinely assume Romanian authorities didn’t know Tate was in their country?”

Defending herself, Caraballo released a thread of tweets explaining her thought process behind her pizza box tweet.

She tweeted a screenshot of a report from Gandul, a local Romanian news organisation, which said: “The authorities waited for the right moment to catch the Tate brothers, who were always out of the country. After seeing, including on social media networks, that they were together in Romania, the DIICOT prosecutors mobilised the special troops of the Gendarmerie and descended, by force, on their villa in Pipera, but also on other addresses.”

Caraballo explained that she had landed on the pizza box being the reason behind Tate’s arrest because “it’s the only post with a confirmed time and place that puts Andrew Tate in Romania in his home that could not be reposted content”.

“I think it’s fair that people are criticising me for jumping to conclusions. This is not confirmed by Romanian officials and I’m basing my assumption off a poorly Google translated article from Romanian reporting. However, I did the work and looked at his socials to check,” Carabello wrote.

Thunberg herself referenced the theory with a tweet of her own, which said: “this is what happens when you don’t recycle your pizza boxes.”