A social media personality and Fox News regular known for his staunch criticism of crime, drug use and homelessness in San Francisco has been arrested on suspicion of pimping and pandering.
Ricci Wynne, 39, was detained alongside a 30-year-old woman, who is believed to be a sex worker, at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday evening after flying in from Miami, police said.
According to a police report reviewed by The San Francisco Standard, the alleged sex work mostly took place in Wynne’s luxury apartment on Fremont Street.
It sometimes also involved travel to Salt Lake City, Las Vegas and Hawaii, police said.
A search warrant executed at Wynne’s apartment allegedly found almost $80,000 in cash, according to SF Gate, as well as evidence of sex work on three cellphones belonging to Wynne, including texts from clients.
In one text message, an individual asked about a “GFE” (girlfriend experience), the police report said.
The conservative social media personality denied that he had been pimping out the woman for sex and that the phones belonged to him, while the woman denied that she was being trafficked or was working as a sex worker, according to the report.
Wynne was booked into San Francisco County Jail Monday morning, records from the San Francisco Sheriff’s Office show. Police said that the unnamed woman was later released.
Wynne has garnered more than 100,000 followers on Instagram and nearly 30,000 followers on X by posting videos of homeless drug users in the South of Market (SoMA) and Tenderloin neighborhoods.
The two areas accounted for 39 percent of accidental drug overdoses in the city last year, according to data from the Office of the City Administrator.
Writing on X earlier this month, the self-styled “video vigilante” also called on Robert F Kennedy Jr, Donald Trump’s Health and Human Services secretary pick, to “save” San Francisco and declared the region “MAGA City.”
The video saw Wynne ask a man, who appeared to be homeless, whether a sore on his leg had maggots in it.
Wynne frequently appeared on Fox News early last year to discuss crime and drug use in the city, including as a guest on Jesse Watters Primetime and Tucker Carlson Tonight.
The former drug dealer-turned activist was convicted of possession of a firearm and possession with intent to distribute cocaine in 2019 after advertising a “cocaine buffet” on Snapchat. He was released on probation in December 2021.
The Independent has contacted the San Francisco Sheriff’s Office for more information.
