The morning after the Romanian press reported his arrest for suspected human trafficking, controversial kickboxing influencer Andrew Tate posted a cryptic tweet that appeared to confirm his newfound legal trouble.
“The Matrix sent their agents,” Tate tweeted on Friday morning, at 11:30 a.m. Central European Time.
According to news reports, the agents in fact worked for Romania’s Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT).
The Romanian news website Libertatea reported in a story updated late Thursday night that Andrew and Tristan Tate have been detained for 24 hours. The paper said that a criminal case was opened for the British brothers, who investigated for human trafficking and rape. Andrew and Tristan Tate will be brought before the Bucharest Court on Friday, Dec. 30, with a proposal for preventive arrest for 30 days, according to the paper.
RomaniaTV, a news website, reported that a “former policewoman from Bucharest, who worked for the two millionaire brothers,” was also detained.
Footage of Tate’s arrest went viral on Thursday evening, the day after his Twitter fight with environmental activist Greta Thunberg.
“Hello,” Tate, 36, wrote on Tuesday in a tweet directed at Thunberg, 19. “I have 33 cars. My Bugatti has a w16 8.0L quad turbo. My TWO Ferrari 812 competizione have 6.5L v12s. This is just the start. Please provide your email address so I can send a complete list of my car collection and their respective enormous emissions.”
The tweet showed a picture of him appearing to refuel one of those cars at a gas station.
On Wednesday, Thunburg responded.
“[Y]es, please do enlighten me,” she wrote on Twitter. “[E]mail me at smalldickenergy@getalife.com.”
The exchange went viral, with both Thunberg and Tate taking criticism from detractors and praise from fans. In response to one Tate supporter who said the influencer and the activist should “stop flirting and just fuck already,” Tate wrote: “She ain’t ready.”
In another Twitter response to Thunberg on Wednesday, Tate posted a two-minute video of himself criticizing the environmental activist. During that video, Tate receives what looks like a delivery box from “Jerry’s Pizza,” a Romanian pizza chain.
Citing Romanian reports, attorney and Harvard Cyberlaw Clinic Instructor Alejandra Caraballo said that pizza delivery may have proven to be Tate’s own undoing.
“Romanian authorities needed proof that Andrew Tate was in the country so they reportedly used his social media posts,” she tweeted on Thursday. “His ridiculous video yesterday featured a pizza from a Romanian pizza chain, Jerry’s Pizza, confirming he was in the country. This is absolutely epic.”
Carabello further explained her rationale in a Twitter thread on Friday.
Also on Friday, Thunberg acknowledged that theory in a tweet.
“[T]his is what happens when you don’t recycle your pizza boxes,” she wrote.
DIICOT did not respond to Law&Crime’s email seeking comment.
Adam Klasfeld contributed to this report.