The controversial social media influencer Andrew Tate has been arrested in Romania on suspicion of human trafficking, rape and forming an organised crime group.

Prosecutors confirmed that the 36-year-old British-American and his brother Tristan were arrested on Thursday evening (Thursday, December 29), Sky News reported.

They are being detained for 24 hours alongside two Romanian suspects.

The 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,"
prosecutors said.

"They would have gained important sums of money."

The brothers, who have been under criminal investigation since April, have declined to comment, but their lawyer confirmed they had been detained.

Prosecutors added that six people had been identified who had allegedly been sexually exploited by the group, who were initially recruited by British citizens "misrepresenting their intention to enter into a marriage or cohabitation relationship".

They were then taken to Romania's Ilfov county where "by exercising acts of physical violence and mental coercion - through intimidation, constant surveillance, control and invoking alleged debts - they were sexually exploited by group members by forcing them to perform demonstrations pornographic for the purpose of producing and disseminating through social media platforms material having such a character and by submitting to the execution of a forced labour".

Who is Andrew Tate?

Tate is a former kickboxer who gained some notoriety for appearing on Big Brother in 2016 after a video appeared to show him attacking a woman with a belt - a clip which he claimed was edited.

Criticism has been aimed at him in recent times due to his views which have been described as misogynistic.

This includes him suggesting that rape victims "bear some responsibility" for being attacked and has described women as "property" belonging to men. 

As a result, concerns have been raised about his influence on young people, particularly young men.

Profiles of his on sites such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube have been banned, although he was recently reinstated on Twitter.

Earlier in the week, Tate sparked a row with climate campaigner Greta Thunberg when he shared a picture of himself on Twitter standing next to a Bugatti and saying he owned 33 cars.

He made a point of asking for an email address to send his list of cars to her and their "enormous emissions".

Ms Thunberg responded by saying: "Yes, please do enlighten me", adding a fake email address mocking him and ending with the words "getalife.com", with her reply getting over three million likes.