A man accused of preying on drunken women at Minneapolis bars may have had more victims than the four that authorities know about, Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher said Thursday.

Maksud Ul Mahbub, 35, of Shoreview, faces four counts of criminal sexual conduct based on evidence and accounts from four women who said they were forced or tricked into going to Mahbub's house, where they were assaulted. Those cases date to 2007, but were not discovered until a Sheriff's Department investigation earlier this year linked them to Mahbub.

He was arrested April 30 and charged in Ramsey County District Court. He has since posted $100,000 bail.

During the investigation, deputies seized a digital camera, a computer, cell phones, numerous cell phone batteries and women's underwear from Mahbub's house. Some photos found on Mahbub's computer may be of additional victims, Fletcher said.

"Some of them are unconscious and some are intoxicated," Fletcher said. "He's a predator who needs to be stopped."

The Minneapolis Police Department has put area bars on notice about Mahbub, who could not be reached for comment Thursday. Calls to his house were redirected to a commercial company.

The investigation began Sept. 7, when a 24-year-old woman filed a complaint with St. Paul police. She said she and a girlfriend had gone to the bars in the Minneapolis Warehouse District a few nights earlier. She had too much to drink and texted a co-worker, asking him to come pick her up.

She said the last thing she remembered was standing outside the bar waiting for her ride. She woke up in a man's car, she said. She tried calling a friend but her cell phone didn't work. The man took her to his house, where she eventually passed out.

The woman later awoke to find herself on the man's bed with him on top of her. She blacked out and when she awoke again she grabbed her clothes to leave, taking a piece of his mail before jumping into a cab that he had called for her. Two days later she realized that someone had removed the battery from her cell phone, but replaced the battery cover so that she wouldn't notice it missing.

Investigators looking through taxi company records found three additional women who had been picked up in the early morning hours from Mahbub's house. Interviews with the three revealed stories similar to the woman who contacted police.

All three women told investigators they had not wanted to go to his home. None of them knew Mahbub nor were they on a date with him. All said they went out with a friend or friends and somehow got separated from them during the course of the night.

One of Mahbub's neighbors told investigators that he went out with Mahbub one night in the summer of 2008. Mahbub bragged to the man that he would pick up "drunk girls" and take them to his house for sex.

Anyone with information about the case, or who believes they may have been a victim, should call the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office at 651-266-7320.

Matt McKinney • 612-217-1747