Ricci Wynne, a drug dealer turned activist known for Fox News appearances and for trashing San Francisco online, was arrested and jailed Monday morning on suspicion of pimping and pandering.
Wynne is known for posting online videos of homeless people and drug users in SoMa and the Tenderloin. He is listed as a member of the campaign team for the politics-focused group WE San Francisco.
Wynne had nearly $80,000 in cash when he was arrested, according to police sources with knowledge of the case.
Wynne — who has 105,000 followers on Instagram — was once seen at a WE SF event straddling a poodle for a group photo.
WE SF’s Ben Kaplan said Wynne’s involvement in the group was minimal.
“[He]came to a public happy hour and filled out a public volunteer form that uploads automatically to our webpage where he self-selected “Campaign Team” for volunteer assignments. We never had a chance to follow up on his interest or update the webpage because the Campaign Team was paused to put resources into other focus areas,” Kaplan said in an email.
Wynne has been spotted cozying up to Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie, appearing alongside him in a video and pledging his support before the election. Lurie’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
‘What she does is her business’
Wynne’s arrest sprang from an investigation that named him as a suspect in the sexual assault of a 15-year-old, according to a police report viewed by The Standard.
The report notes that Wynne was arrested at San Francisco International Airport as he returned from a sanctioned trip to Miami. (Wynne is on federal probation.) He was traveling with a 30-year-old woman investigators believe he was pimping out for sex work.
Police on Monday searched his luxury apartment on the 28th floor of 399 Fremont St., discovering $79,900 in cash. Monthly rent for apartments similar to his two-bedroom unit is around $5,500.
Police also searched three cellphones they say belong to Wynne that contained evidence of sex work, including rates: $500 to $600 an hour for in-calls, and $700 for outcalls.
The phones also contained texts from clients, the report states. In one message, a client asked about GFE, or “girlfriend experience.”
Most of the sex work was carried out in the apartment, according to the report. However, some included travel to Hawaii, Salt Lake City, and Las Vegas.
Wynne denied that the phones belonged to him or that he was a pimp, according to the report.
When quizzed by officers at the airport about alleged sex work by the woman who was detained with Wynne, he said: “What she does is her business.”
The woman denied that she was being trafficked or working as a prostitute. The Standard was unable to reach her by phone Monday. She was not arrested.
When police googled the woman’s phone number, they discovered photos of her on sex work websites.
The search of Wynne’s apartment also found evidence of legitimate income of around $20,000. Police also searched a Mercedes AMG E43 that he kept in the basement parking lot. Per DMV records, the car is registered to a Gage Wynne; news reports name him as a suspected heroin dealer who was caught in a 2015 bust in Sonoma County. The 2023 sedan is worth around $72,000, according to Kelley Blue Book.
A neighbor who lives on the same floor as Wynne and declined to provide a name for fear of retribution said they witnessed police searching the apartment Sunday night.
“You don’t expect neighbors like that in a building like this,” the person said upon learning of the alleged crimes.
If you feel lost ,misplaced or ignored as a San Francisco voter I encourage you to reach out to @DanielLurie and I guarantee you at the end of the conversation you’ll find it hard not to vote for him in November and to elect him as our next mayor of this great city pic.twitter.com/R9qfER2M3A
— Ricci Wynne (@RawRicci415) September 15, 2024
Wynne’s most recent video on X, posted Nov. 18, showed him asking a man who appeared to be homeless if a sore on his legs had maggots in it and if he needed aid.
The post reads: “I want to help @DanielLurie or @RobertKennedyJr to save San Francisco or #MAHA.” The hashtag refers to “Make America Healthy Again.”
Wynne in 2022 failed to get a seat on the Reentry Council, which advises San Francisco on rules for people exiting the criminal justice system.
Wynne has a history of distributing controlled substances. In a 2019 incident, he advertised a “cocaine buffet” on Snapchat, leading to his arrest on drug and weapons charges.
After two years in jail, he won leniency from the court when his attorney argued that Wynne’s troubled youth and history with drugs meant treatment was the best course of action.
He was released and sentenced to three years of probation in December 2021. A judge also ordered him to complete vocational training, mental health treatment, and substance abuse testing and treatment.
A year later Wynne posted a “Mr. Rogers” parody that went viral. In producing videos that bash homeless drug users, he has aspired to be an in-your-face type of influencer, gleefully trashing the city as a one-man anti-San Francisco hate squad. It is common for him to tag everyone from podcaster Joe Rogan to Lurie.
Wynne last appeared on Fox in November 2023 as a guest on Fox Business’ “Varney & Co.”, a spokesperson told The Standard.