Andrew Tate has been arrested in Romania after authorities raided his home

Andrew Tate has been arrested in Romania as part of a human trafficking investigation.

The former kickboxer and his brother were taken into custody after authorities raided their Pipera home, which is at the northern edge of Bucharest.

Atena Observer claims authorities were at the property for up to five hours.

The Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) was in charge of the arrest operation.

DIICOT released a statement, saying: "The prosecutors of the Directorate for the Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism - Central Structure together with police officers from the Bucharest Organized Crime Brigade implemented 5 home search warrants in a case in which investigations under the aspect of committing the crimes of constituting an organized criminal group, human trafficking and rape."

Dexerto says Tate has been under investigation since April this year over allegations of human trafficking.

DIICOT's statement added: "Victims were recruited by British citizens by misrepresenting their intention to enter into a marriage/cohabitation relationship and the existence of genuine feelings of love (the loverboy method).

"They were later transported and housed in buildings in 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 pornographic demonstrations 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."

Romanian media says the raids were carried out because prosecutors wanted to make sure the Tate brothers were in the country.

Tate made that abundantly clear when he was in a war of words with Greta Thunberg.

yes, please do enlighten me. email me at [email protected] https://t.co/V8geeVvEvg

— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) December 28, 2022

In what has been the most unlikely social media beef of 2022, Tate called out the Swedish climate activist on Twitter.

He bragged about his collection of cars that spewed 'enormous emissions’ in a bid to provoke the 19-year-old.

He tweeted: “Hello @GretaThunberg 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."

Thunberg came back at him with a hell of a haymaker by saying: "Yes, please do enlighten me. Email me at smalld**[email protected]."

Tate then posted a two-minute video rant on Twitter to insist that Thunberg has not managed to get under his skin.

It was in this video that Tate tried to level the playing field. At one point in the two-minute clip, the former kickboxer said to someone off camera to get him some pizza.

Pizza was then plonked in front of Tate and you could very easily work out they had ordered from Jerry's Pizza in Romania.

Romanian news outlet Gandul claims 'authorities waited for the right moment to catch the Tate brothers, who were always out of the country'.

"After seeing, including on social networks, that they were together in Romania, the DIICOT prosecutors mobilized the special troops of the Gendarmerie and descended, by force, on their villa in Pipera, but also on other addresses," the news outlet claimed.