Controversial internet personality Andrew Tate and his brother detained for a month in Romania - CNN

CNN  — 

Controversial net property Andrew Tate and his member were ordered to beryllium detained for a period connected Friday arsenic prosecutors pursued claims of quality trafficking and rape.

Authorities successful Romania said constabulary served hunt warrants connected Thursday astatine 5 homes and took 4 suspects into custody – 2 Britons and 2 Romanians – arsenic portion of the investigation.

Romania’s Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) said the 4 suspects had been detained for an archetypal 24 hours. A Bucharest tribunal accepted an exertion by DIICOT to clasp Tate and his member Tristan successful custody for a further 30 days, their lawyer Eugen Vidineac said connected Friday.

Speaking to journalists extracurricular the court, Vidineac said the determination would beryllium appealed. “From our perspective, determination are nary grounds for taking the astir drastic preventive measures provided by the transgression process code,” helium added, according to Reuters.

DIICOT alleged that the 4 suspects formed an organized transgression radical that stretched from Romania to Britain and the United States, for the intent of committing the transgression of quality trafficking.

The authorities allege that 2 of the suspects misled the victims “into believing that they intended to participate into a marriage/cohabitation relationship” portion transporting victims to Romania and aboriginal sexually exploiting them with carnal unit and coercion.

Authorities besides said 1 of the suspects raped a unfortunate connected 2 abstracted occasions successful March 2022. At slightest six victims were allegedly “sexually exploited by the organized transgression group,” the DIICOT connection said.

On Thursday, DIICOT released an edited, grainy, sometimes out-of-focus video purportedly showing the raids. A antheral tin beryllium seen being patted down by police. It’s unclear who is being detained successful the video.

In a abstracted video aired by CNN affiliate Antena 3, officers from the transgression bureau tin beryllium seen escorting Andrew and Tristan Tate into constabulary vehicles.

On Friday, Andrew Tate tweeted from his verified account, “The Matrix sent their agents.”

Andrew Tate, a erstwhile nonrecreational kickboxer, is known for his viral rants online astir antheral dominance, pistillate submission and wealth. He openly advocates unit against women, and had antecedently been banned from each large societal media level until Elon Musk reinstated his Twitter relationship aft taking implicit the company.

He roseate successful prominence earlier this year, with galore adults including schoolhouse teachers voicing alarm astir his misogynistic ideas taking basal successful the minds of countless young boys. Before it was taken down, his TikTok relationship racked up astir 11.6 cardinal views.

He made headlines this week for a Twitter enactment with Swedish clime activistic Greta Thunberg, who told Tate to get a beingness aft helium tweeted astir his galore cars “and their respective tremendous emissions.”

There was speculation online that authorities were alerted to Tate’s beingness successful Romania by the quality of a peculiar pizza container successful 1 of the photos helium posted successful his spat with Thunberg.

But, according to Reuters, a spokesperson for DIICOT said the pizza boxes did not play a relation successful the detentions.