A man from the Chicago area is accused of running a prostitution operation out of Saint Cloud, recruiting a woman to have sex with buyers he found online.
Ricky Pharrel Mackey, of Waukegan, Illinois, faces three felony charges in Stearns County: soliciting an individual to practice prostitution, promoting prostitution of an individual and engaging in the sex trafficking of an individual. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $40,000 fine.
According to the criminal complaint, investigators with the Central Minnesota Human Trafficking Task Force were conducting an investigation on Oct. 30, 2025, into prostitution advertisements posted on the website MegaPersonals. They found an ad offering sexual services in the Saint Cloud area and arranged a meeting through the listed phone number.
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A woman, identified as Adult A in the complaint, arrived at the arranged location. She told investigators she had come to the meeting to engage in sexual activity for money and had recently met with multiple buyers in the Saint Cloud area. She said a friend from Chicago named "Ricky" had helped set up the online advertisements and was communicating with potential buyers on her behalf.
Investigators conducted a forensic extraction of the woman's cell phone and found numerous text messages and social media communications between her and Mackey. The messages showed Mackey directing and facilitating the prostitution activity, according to the complaint.
Records showed the phone number used in the advertisement was a Verizon line activated on July 29, 2025 and subscribed to Mackey. Text communications between the two began around Aug. 6, 2025. In those early messages, Mackey discussed creating accounts to post ads and provided the woman with login credentials for an email account, instructing her to keep the information in case he was arrested, the complaint says.
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On Aug. 7, 2025, Mackey sent the woman text messages containing language consistent with a prostitution ad, including descriptions of sexual services, pricing and payment methods. She also sent him images intended to be used in the advertisements.
A search of Mackey's Google account revealed emails from MegaPersonals related to account setup and verification, along with search history during September and October 2025 for escort websites including "Chicago Escorts," "ListCrawler" and "MegaPersonals," court records show.
On Oct. 17, 2025, a MegaPersonals advertisement was posted using Mackey's phone number. Advertisements tied to the number appeared in both Minnesota and Illinois.
Communications between the two show Mackey coordinated the prostitution activity by communicating with potential buyers and relaying the information to the woman. On Oct. 27, he told her he would post an advertisement and discussed pricing for sexual services. On Oct. 28, Mackey communicated with her through Snapchat regarding multiple potential buyers, relaying details about the services requested, prices and meeting locations, the complaint states.
The charges allege the operation ran from Feb. 9, 2025 through Oct. 30, 2025.
