Andrew Tate detained by Romanian authorities on suspicion of running a sex trafficking ring — a day after Greta Thunberg's brutal Twitter diss

• Romanian police have detained the famously divisive anti-women influencer Andrew Tate.
• Tate, his brother Tristan and two others were detained on human trafficking charges.

Andrew Tate, the ex-kickboxer turned YouTuber popular for his anti-women views, has been detained by Romanian authorities as part of a human trafficking investigation, a day after he was publicly humiliated on Twitter by climate activist Greta Thunberg.

According to Reuters, a Romanian anti-organized crime unit detained Andrew Tate, his brother Tristan and two Romanians on Thursday. Prosecutors in Romania alleged that the men — under criminal investigation since April 2022 — exploited women at their mansion in Bucharest, and said they would be detained for 24 hours.

"The four suspects appear to have created an organized crime group with the purpose of recruiting, housing and exploiting women by forcing them to create pornographic content meant to be seen on specialized websites for a cost," prosecutors said, according to Reuters. "They would have gained important sums of money."

In the raid, prosecutors alleged that they located six women who were trafficked by Tate's crew since early 2021. In a press release, authorities alleged that at least one woman was raped and that the operation has been based between Romania, the United Kingdom, and the US.

Insider reached out to Romanian authorities for additional details on the raid.

"Victims were recruited by British citizens by misrepresenting their intention to enter into a marriage/cohabitation relationship and the existence of genuine feelings of love (the loverboy method)," authorities said in a press release. "They were later transported and housed in buildings in Ilfov county where, by exercising acts of physical violence and mental coercion."

Andrew Tate's paid video subscription program "Hustler University," where he has said that women are at fault for being raped and are the possession of men, has amassed him tens of millions of dollars and a legion of followers, according to Buzzfeed News.

The detention comes just over 24 hours after Andrew Tate picked a Twitter fight with climate activist Greta Thunberg, bragging about his 33 cars with "enormous emissions." In response, Thunberg told him to email her more info about his cars at "smalldickenergy@getalife.com."

Her response garnered over 3 million likes. Tate had been banned on all social media platforms for his extreme views until Twitter CEO Elon Musk reinstated his account in November.

The Tate brothers' lawyer did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment.