SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) – One of San Francisco’s most viral residents was locked in a jail cell on Monday. Neighborhood watchdog Ricci Wynne was booked into jail around 2 a.m. on suspicion of felony pimping, San Francisco jail inmate records show.
Wynne has legions of social media followers. Over the past three years, videos posted on his social media pages, RawRicci415, garnered hundreds of thousands of views.
The former drug dealer served time behind bars before he became an anti-crime and anti-drug activist. Wynne made a social media splash by using his cellphone camera to expose abysmal street conditions within neighborhoods and brazen open-air drug markets.
Nexstar’s KRON4 interviewed Wynne for multiple news stories, including stories about the rise of fentanyl in San Francisco, a wild carjacking he caught on camera, and the time he sought a job at City Hall. The 39-year-old influencer also appeared on Fox News’ national broadcasts talking about crime in San Francisco.
Wynne’s most recent X videos call on the city’s newly elected mayor, Daniel Lurie, to make drug rehab programs mandatory. The videos include Wynne walking the streets and talking to homeless drug addicts. “We have a long road to recovery here in San Francisco,” he wrote. In September, he stood with Lurie at a campaign rally to voice his support for the mayoral candidate.
The San Francisco Standard reported that Wynne was arrested at San Francisco International Airport after he stepped off a flight from Miami. A police report states that he was traveling with a woman who was used for commercial sex work, the Standard reported.
When officers searched Wynne’s apartment on Monday, they found nearly $80,000 in cash and incriminating messages on his cellphones, according to the Standard.