Police Raid MAGA “King of Toxic Masculinity’ In Human Trafficking Investigation

Romanian police raided the house of distinguished pro-Trump on-line character Andrew Tate earlier this month as a part of a human-trafficking investigation, bringing new consideration to Tate’s ties to main figures within the American MAGA motion.

Earlier than the April 11 raid, Tate was greatest referred to as a kickboxer and vocal Trump supporter within the on-line far proper. On social media, Tate portrayed himself as a rich cigar-smoking playboy, prompting one admirer to dub him the “king of poisonous masculinity.”

However Tate’s therapy of girls had an unpleasant aspect. In 2016, he was booted off the British model of Large Brother over a video of him hitting a girl with a belt. This March, Britain’s Every day Mirror tabloid profiled him and his brother Tristan Tate and their Romania-based enterprise which used webcam fashions to trick males into sending the brothers tens of 1000’s of {dollars}. In one video on his YouTube channel, Andrew Tate mentioned “40 %” of the explanation he moved to Romania was as a result of Romanian police have been much less more likely to pursue sexual assault allegations.

Tate’s unsavory actions didn’t cease him from constructing hyperlinks with the celebrities of the Trumpian proper. In 2019, Tate palled round Washington, D.C. with distinguished on-line Trump activists and conspiracy theorists. He shared a meal with far-right cable information commentator Jack Posobiec and Infowars host Paul Joseph Watkins, and appeared a number of occasions on Infowars exhibits.

In Trump’s Washington resort, Tate posed for an image with Brexit advocate Nigel Farage, and sat in a gaggle within the Trump resort foyer with the likes of Pizzagate conspiracy theorist Mike Cernovich and future Jan. 6 protest organizer Ali Alexander. Cernovich visited the Tate brothers in Romania later that yr, describing them as his “associates” within the description of his podcast.

Whereas Cernovich constructed his identify on-line by making false human-trafficking claims a couple of Washington pizzeria, the Tates might quickly be accused of real human trafficking. In a press release offered to The Every day Beast, Romania’s Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism mentioned the raid on the Tates’ home was a part of an investigation that started after a girl was reported to be held on the home towards her will. Because the probe continued, it escalated to incorporate “crimes of human trafficking and rape.”

Video from the raid present cops armed with rifles milling among the many Tates’ sports activities vehicles, with a neon “TATE” emblem on a wall within the background. One other video confirmed Tate and his brother being shoved into vans by cops earlier than being pushed away from their houses.

A Romanian newspaper reported that the raid was sparked over experiences that an American lady was being held captive on the Tate home. Police discovered each the American and a Romanian lady within the constructing in the course of the raid, in accordance with the report. In a press release on the raid to The Every day Beast, a U.S. State Division spokesperson alluded to a reported abduction of an American citizen however declined to remark additional.

“We’re conscious of experiences of a U.S. citizen held towards their will in Romania,” the spokesperson mentioned. “Attributable to privateness concerns, now we have no additional remark.”

The Tate brothers didn’t reply to requests for remark. Tate’s pro-Trump colleagues — Cernovich, Watkins, Posobiec, and Alexander — additionally didn’t reply to emails from The Every day Beast.

Tate appeared to handle his arrest in an Instagram image posted after his arrest, that includes him smoking a cigar in a staged interrogation room as faux-police officers loomed over him. Tate added a caption: “Officer…l suppose we will all agree that bitches like to lie.”

The raid on the Tates’ villa isn’t the primary time that the “manosphere,” the far-right males’s on-line neighborhood that Tate belongs to, has been tied to severe legal exercise. In December, a distinguished manosphere character went on a killing spree in Denver, murdering 5 folks earlier than being fatally shot by a police officer.