A Romanian court has said that Andrew Tate, who was arrested on suspicion of human trafficking, rape and forming an organised crime group, will remain in prison for another 30 days.
Mr Tate, a former professional kickboxer and his brother Tristan were detained yesterday for an initial 24 hours alongside two Romanian suspects, prosecutors from the anti-organised crime unit said in a statement after raiding their properties in Bucharest.
"Anti-organised crime prosecutors have notified the rights and liberties judge with the Bucharest Court with a proposal to remand the four suspects for 30 days," the prosecutors said.
The brothers declined to comment yesterday but their lawyer confirmed they had been detained.
Prosecutors said the Tate brothers had been under criminal investigation since April.
"The four suspects... appear to have created an organised crime group with the purpose of recruiting, housing and exploiting women by forcing them to create pornographic content meant to be seen on specialised websites for a cost," prosecutors said in a statement.
"They would have gained important sums of money."
Prosecutors said they had found six women who had been sexually exploited by the suspects.
Mr Tate, who was born in the United States, holds US and British nationality. Britain's Foreign Office said today it had not been approached for consular assistance over the case.
Earlier, a police spokesperson told the BBC that the 36-year-old would be held at a "detention centre".
Romania's Directorate for Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) issued a statement, but did not name the Tates, saying two British citizens and two Romanians were suspected of being part of a criminal group focused on human trafficking.
Prosecutors had applied to a Bucharest court early today for the right to hold the suspects beyond 24 hours and that has now been granted, the Associated Press reported.
According to the directorate, six injured people have been identified in relation to the investigation, one of whom is said to have been violently sexually assaulted in March.
Some of the suspects allegedly used the "loverboy" method of trafficking, which involves a man luring a victim into a relationship in order to sexually exploit them later, DIICOT said.
The victims were transported and housed in buildings in Ilfov county, which surrounds Bucharest, where they were coerced into making pornographic content, it is alleged.
DIICOT released a video of the raid showing guns, knives and money on display in one room.
Outside the court, the lawyer for the Tates, Eugen Constantin Vidineac, said they would appeal against the detention.
"We are not at a stage where guilt or innocence is proven, for now we only discuss preventive measures," he added. Mr Vidineac told the BBC his clients reject all the allegations.
After his arrest, a tweet was posted on Tate's Twitter account suggesting he had been captured by Matrix agents.
It was the latest of a series of Matrix references by Tate, who tells his followers to "take the red pill" and take his advice as a way to get rich.
The concept of the films has been co-opted by far-right conspiracy theorists and men's rights groups in recent years.
Mr Tate appeared on the UK version of Big Brother in 2016 and was removed from the reality show over a video that appeared to show him hitting a woman with a belt.
He later gained attention for his social media presence and the following year was banned from Twitter for saying women should "bear responsibility" for being sexually assaulted.
On the Anything Goes with James English podcast last year, he said: "I will state right now that I am absolutely sexist and I'm absolutely a misogynist."
Mr Tate and his brother have been under investigation since April alongside two Romanian nationals.
Footage circulated widely on social media yesterday appeared to show Mr Tate and his brother being led away from a luxury villa.
Notoriety
Mr Tate gained notoriety for misogynistic comments and hate speech.
A number of social media platforms banned the controversial influencer, including Twitter, but his account there became active again in November, after the platform was taken over by Elon Musk.
In one of his tweets following his return to the platform, Mr Tate said he was flying to California to tell Mr Musk he was "a legend".
Mr Tate appeared to have sent a tweet today that suggested he had retained access to his phone and to social media while held in custody.
"Anybody who has access to his account can post," said a representative of Romania's anti-organised crime unit when asked how it was possible that Mr Tate was tweeting while in custody.
Earlier this week, Mr Tate was told to "get a life" by climate activist Greta Thunberg on Twitter after he told her he owned 33 cars with "enormous emissions".
Mr Tate hit back at Ms Thunberg on Wednesday in a video during which he asked somebody out of shot to bring him pizza and to make sure the boxes were "not recycled".
Following online speculation that the brand of pizza featured in the video helped police confirm Mr Tate's presence in Romania, Ms Thunberg quipped on Twitter that "this is what happens when you don't recycle your pizza boxes".
However, the anti organised-crime unit representative said that it was not the case that Mr Tate's arrest had been made as a result of the pizza boxes.
Mr Tate operates the 'Hustler's University', which claims to have over 160,000 users who pay a subscription to learn about topics such as cryptocurrencies, investing and business.
Additional reporting PA.
