Social media star Andrew Tate arrested by Romanian police after allegedly revealing location through pizza box

Brady Knox

December 29, 07:36 PM December 29, 07:36 PM

Social media star Andrew Tate was arrested by Romanian police alongside his brother on sex trafficking charges after police were allegedly tipped off to his location by a pizza box.

Tate became the center of media chatter on Tuesday when he got into a viral social media altercation with Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, which culminated in Tate releasing a two-minute-long video on Twitter deriding her.

In the video, a cigar-smoking Tate was handed two pizza boxes from off-screen. He then presented them to the camera after promising not to recycle them.

Several outlets, including the Daily Mail, Pop Craze, and Pop Base, reported that it was the pizza boxes from Jerry's Pizza, a Romanian pizza chain, that tipped authorities off to Tate's location.

The following day, agents of Romania's Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism stormed the brothers' house and arrested both of them.

The arrest was reported by Antena 3 CNN and Libertatea and was then apparently confirmed by DIICOT in a press release. The brothers were shown being led into custody by DIICOT agents on local TV.

DIICOT didn't name the Tate brothers in its press release about the raid but mentioned two British citizens targeted in the searches, bringing up a March 2021 case of identical circumstances that Tate was known to be involved in. The house searches were related to human trafficking, rape, and forming an organized criminal group.

INFLUENCER ANDREW TATE KICKED OFF TIKTOK AND INSTAGRAM FOR MISOGYNISTIC COMMENTS

"On 29.12.2022, 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 ... [involving] committing the crimes of constituting an organized criminal group, human trafficking, and rape," DIICOT wrote.

"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 ... and ... forced labor," it added.

The release said police have identified six victims targeted by the group so far. The mentioning of five home search warrants indicates that the Tate brothers are suspected of being just two members of a larger organized criminal group. Four people were arrested in the searches and will be held in detention for 24 hours until authorities decide on further actions.

Libertatea reported that criminal files on human trafficking and rape were opened in the brothers' names.

"We cannot provide any details at the moment regarding alleged reports that they have been detained; however, Andrew and Tristan Tate have the utmost respect for the Romanian authorities and will always assist and help in any way they can," a spokesman for Tate told the Daily Mirror.

Tate was also arrested by Romanian police in April on sex trafficking accusations. He was released but investigations continued, Antena 3 CNN reported.

The former kickboxer is known for his bombastic "alpha male" persona and inflammatory comments, particularly regarding women. He became a viral sensation this year, becoming the most googled man on the planet by August, according to Pulse.ug.

Coin study reveals Roman emperor long thought to be fake was most likely real

Brady Knox

November 23, 11:06 PM November 23, 11:06 PM

A Roman emperor, long thought to have been invented by forgers, was found by a coin study to have likely been real.

Coins depicting a Roman emperor called Sponsian were first discovered in Transylvania, modern day Romania, in 1713. Historians in the 19th century dismissed the coins as a poor forgery due to the lack of a Sponsian in the historical record and the unusual design of the coins, which differed from other contemporary designs. However, a study conducted by several professors, published in the journal PLOS 1, discovered that the coins are actually most likely genuine, depicting a real Roman usurper from the chaotic Crisis of the Third Century period.

"What we have found is an emperor. He was a figure thought to have been a fake and written off by the experts," Prof Paul Pearson of University College London, who led the research, told the BBC. "But we think he was real and that he had a role in history."

HOW TO REMAIN HUMBLE LIKE A ROMAN EMPEROR

Examining the coins under an advanced microscope, the researchers found scratches consistent with past usage, as one would expect for coins jangling around in a coin purse. Chemical experiments found that the coins were likely buried for hundreds of years, further suggesting their authenticity. The sole task left for researchers was figuring out why the coins differ so much from contemporaries and accounting for Sponsian's absence from the historical record.

The researchers hypothesized that Sponsian was most likely a local Dacian Roman ruler during the 260s-270s A.D., at the height of the Crisis of the Third Century. The period saw the mighty Roman Empire reach the precipice of collapse due to constant civil wars, barbarian invasions, economic depression, plague, and ineffectual leadership. The province of Dacia, inconveniently jutting out across the Danube River, was hit especially hard, isolated from the rest of the crumbling empire until its ultimate abandonment by Aurelian in the 270s.

Sponsian, as the hypothesis goes, took matters into his own hands as the empire fractured during the reign of Gallienus, proclaiming himself emperor of the isolated province in an attempt to salvage the situation.

"We suggest that Dacia became cut off from the imperial centre around 260 and effectively seceded under its own military regime which initially coined precious metal bullion using old Republican-era designs, then using the names of the most recent previous emperors who had achieved some success in the area, and finally under the name of a local commander-in-chief," the researchers wrote.

Sponsian may not have even seen himself as a challenger to Rome, but rather a desperate local regent that cooperated with Emperor Aurelian to help evacuate the population across the Danube into more defensible territory in the 270s.

"We suggest that Sponsian may have been the commanding officer (dux) of these legions and the combined forces of Dacia, and that he led a secessionist regime within a time window extending from 260 to the mid-270s at a time when most of the rest of the empire was wracked by civil war and collapsed frontiers, and secure communication with Rome was impossible. His priority would have been to protect the population and resist being over-run by hostile tribes. In this scenario, he was not technically a usurper challenging central authority, but his imperium might be considered a local necessity," the researchers concluded.

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The hypothesis of the researchers has larger ramifications into Roman historiography, such as finally answering the confusion as to why Roman historians recorded Dacia as being lost during the reign of Gallienus, but also abandoned by Aurelian in the succeeding decade.