Romanian prosecutors have asked a Bucharest court to extend the arrest of controversial former kickboxer and internet personality Andrew Tate, by 30 days, prosecutors from the anti organized crime unit said in a statement.
Tate and his brother Tristan were initially detained for 24 hours alongside two Romanian suspects, on suspicion of human trafficking, rape and forming an organized crime group.
The 36-year-old has declined to comment but his lawyer has confirmed he has been detained.
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The Tate brothers have been under criminal investigation since April.
"The four suspects ... appear to have created an organized crime group with the purpose of recruiting, housing and exploiting women by forcing them to create pornographic content meant to be seen on specialized websites for a cost," prosecutors said.
"They would have gained important sums of money."
Andrew Tate and Tristan Tate are escorted by police officers outside the headquarters of the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism in Bucharest. /Inquam Photos/Octav Ganea/Reuters
Prosecutors said they had found six women who had been sexually exploited by the suspects.
Tate, banned from many social media platforms for misogynistic comments and hate speech, has said women are partially responsible for being raped and that they belong to men.
Earlier this week, the British national was told to get a life by climate activist Greta Thunberg on Twitter after he told her he owned 33 cars with "enormous emissions."
Climate campaigner Greta Thunberg and the kickboxer exchanged tweets earlier in the week. /Official Twitter account of Greta Thunberg/AFP
Thunberg responded to the kickboxer's arrest with another tweet.
The climate campaigner appeared to be referring to a theory circulating on social media that Tate inadvertently revealed his location to the police when pizza boxes were seen in a video he posted responding to her.
The video shows Tate telling someone (not seen on camera): "Please bring me pizza and make sure that these boxes are not recycled," before being handed the pizza boxes with Romanian text on it.
The theory has led to the trending hashtag #PizzaTate, although users have since pointed out that Tate had been posting about his location in Romania before the online argument.