Police investigating Andrew Tate sex allegations carry out fresh raids across Romania

Police investigating sexual allegations against controversial social media influencer Andrew Tate and his brother have carried out new raids in Romania.

In a series of raids in Bucharest and elsewhere in Romania, police seized documents and computer equipment from various properties said to be connected to Tate and his brother Tristan.

It comes as the country’s media reported that the British consul had visited the brothers in the prison where they are being held following their arrest last month.

They were being held as part of a large investigation into claims that the Luton-born Tate and his brother had trafficked and raped several women as part of an organized criminal empire.

A statement issued by the Directorate of Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism said: “This morning, the prosecutors of DIICOT – Central Structure, in the continuation of the investigations in the case on the commission of the crimes of constitution of an organized criminal group, human smuggling and rape, implement seven house search warrants, within the radius of Bucharest Municipality and Ilfov and Prahova counties.

‘Judicial activities are carried out together with police officers from BCCO Bucharest and SCCO Ilfov.

“We make it clear that throughout the criminal process, the people investigated enjoy the rights and procedural guarantees provided for in the Criminal Procedure Code, as well as the presumption of innocence.”

One of the houses searched was that of the Romanian boxer and cage fighter Vlad Obu and documents and computers were seized.

Tate was arrested on December 29 after police raided his shelter (pictured) on the outskirts of Bucharest.

Tate, 36, a British-American citizen who has 4.5 million Twitter followers, was arrested on December 29 in Bucharest along with his brother Tristan and two Romanian women.

On Tuesday, a court upheld a judge’s Dec. 30 decision to extend his arrest from 24 hours to 30 days.

In a separate hearing Wednesday at the Bucharest Court, Tate lost an appeal challenging assets seized by prosecutors, including property and a fleet of luxury cars, said Ramona Bolla, a spokeswoman for the Romanian anti-organized crime agency DIICOT.

The court “decided that the seizures are legal and (that) the assets remain at our disposal,” he told The Associated Press.

Prosecutors investigating the case have so far seized 15 luxury cars, 11 in the December raids and four last week, at least seven of which are owned by the Tate brothers, and more than 10 properties and land belonging to registered companies. to your name.

Prosecutors investigating the case have seized 15 luxury cars, at least seven of which were owned by the Tate brothers.

Bolla said it was unclear whether assets seized since December were included in Wednesday’s appeal.

If prosecutors can prove Tates made money through human trafficking, Bolla said the assets could be used to cover the costs of the investigation and compensation for victims.

Before Wednesday’s court ruling, Constantin Gliga, one of the lawyers representing Tate, told the media that the asset seizures are out of proportion to the charges.

DIICOT said it has identified six victims in the human trafficking case who were subjected to “acts of physical violence and mental coercion” and were sexually exploited by members of the alleged criminal group.

The agency said the victims were lured under pretenses of love and then intimidated, held under surveillance and subjected to other control tactics while being forced to perform in pornography with the intent of earning money for their alleged persecutors.

Tate, a former professional boxer who has reportedly lived in Romania since 2017, was previously banned from several prominent social media platforms for expressing misogynistic views and hate speech.