A Romanian court has ordered the detention of former professional kickboxer and social-media personality Andrew Tate for another 30 days following his arrest on charges of human trafficking, rape, and forming a criminal group.
Ramona Bolla, a spokeswoman for Romania's Directorate for the Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT), said Tate and three other suspects -- his brother and two Romanian citizens -- had been placed in pretrial detention for 30 days.
The four were arrested on December 29 after DIICOT conducted a series of raids. Romanian prosecutors earlier on December 30 asked a Bucharest court to extend their detention during an investigation into the human trafficking and other alleged crimes.
Tate has declined to comment, but his lawyer, Eugen Constantin Vidineac, told reporters there were "no grounds" for the judge to order "this most drastic preventive measure."
Andrew and Tristan Tate have been living in Romania for several years and are described in media reports as Internet influencers.
DIICOT said Andrew Tate, who was born in the United States and holds U.S. and British nationality, and the others recruited women who were subjected to "acts of physical violence and mental coercion," sexually exploited by group members, and forced to perform pornographic acts intended to reap "important financial benefits."
DIICOT said it identified six people who were sexually exploited by the group, and that five homes were raided on December 29.
Romanian authorities have been unable to control human trafficking for decades.
About 30 people from Romania, mostly women and many minors, are registered monthly by the authorities as victims, and the U.S. State Department said in a report published in August that "the government of Romania does not fully meet minimum standards to eliminate human trafficking," though it recognized some progress.
Andrew Tate gained notoriety in Britain after he was kicked out of a reality show following the publication of a recording of him beating a woman.
He is known for making misogynistic statements and hate speech and has been banned from most social-media platforms, according to the BBC.
This included Twitter until his account was reinstated after Elon Musk took over the platform.
Tate was involved earlier this week in viral Twitter exchanges with 19-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg after he tweeted a picture of himself standing next to luxury cars, noting their "enormous emissions" and that they were among his collection of more than 30 similar cars.
The exchanges fueled speculation on social media that the authorities had used information disclosed in the tweets to locate him and the other suspects.
Bolla refuted the claims, including that an address on a pizza box seen in a video posted by Tate earlier this week had led authorities to his location.
"It's not related," Bolla told AFP.
"To determine whether a person is in the country or not, we use a whole range of means," she added, stressing that "arrest warrants and searches" had already been in place before the posts appeared on Twitter.
Thunberg earlier on December 30 seized the opportunity to take a jab at Tate.
"This is what happens when you don't recycle your pizza boxes," the climate activist said on Twitter.
Thunberg's tweet had received about 2.5 million likes 12 hours after it was posted. Her spokesman told AFP the tweet was meant as a joke.