Louisiana police chiefs took bribes to help foreign nationals get visas, feds say
- - - Louisiana police chiefs took bribes to help foreign nationals get visas, feds say
Jeanine Santucci, USA TODAY July 17, 2025 at 6:57 AM
A group of Louisiana police chiefs, a marshal and a Subway shop operator worked together for nearly a decade to create fake police reports so "hundreds" of people could apply for visas designed for victims of crime, officials alleged in an indictment.
The law enforcement officials and shop operator, who also owns local convenience stores, were charged with 62 counts in a federal grand jury indictment revealed on July 16. The charges include conspiracy, immigration fraud, robbery, mail fraud and money laundering, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana Alexander C. Van Hook said. The five alleged co-conspirators were arrested on July 15 without incident, he said.
Since at least late 2015, people seeking the so-called "U visas" would pay Chandrakant "Lala" Patel, the Subway operator and convenience store owner, thousands of dollars to help them fraudulently obtain status in the United States, Van Hook said. Patel would then pay the law enforcement officials to name them in fake police reports stating that they were victims of armed robberies so that they would qualify for the visas, Van Hook said.
"We expect law enforcement officers to protect the public and to honor their trust, not to sell that trust and the honor of their badges for personal gain," Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's New Orleans office Jonathan Tapp said.
Van Hook said that while the defendants involved in law enforcement were corrupt, the public has no reason to be concerned about the remaining law enforcement officers in their communities.
"We are not alleging that these are corrupt police departments," Van Hook said.
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Who was involved in the visa fraud?
Prosecutors said four central Louisiana law enforcement officials and a business owner were all charged in the fraudulent visa scheme. They are:
Chandrakant "Lala" Patel of Oakdale, Louisiana
Chad Doyle, chief of police for the City of Oakdale, Louisiana
Michael "Freck" Slaney, Marshal of the Ward 5 Marshal’s Office in Oakdale, Louisiana
Glynn Dixon, chief of police for the City of Forest Hill, Louisiana
Tebo Onishea, former chief of police for the City of Glenmora, Louisiana
If they are convicted, the defendants could face up to five years in prison for conspiracy, 10 years for visa fraud and 20 years for mail fraud. Patel also faces up to 10 years for bribery. They could also be ordered to pay a fine of up to $250,000 for each count. It was not immediately clear if any defendants had attorneys who could comment on their behalf.
How did the visa scheme unfold?
A U visa confers what's known as U nonimmigrant status, which is granted to victims of certain crimes and their family members to allow them to remain in the U.S. while authorities investigate or prosecute crimes. The country issues a maximum of 10,000 U visas annually and can create a waitlist if more applications are received, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Over the last decade, "hundreds" of those visas went to people involved in the scheme in Louisiana, Van Hook said.
"When I'm saying there's hundreds of names, those visas were approved. We focused on the ones that were approved," he said.
Foreign nationals seeking the visas would contact Patel or someone else who would contact Patel for them and paid Patel thousands of dollars, prosecutors said. Patel would then pay the law enforcement officials $5,000 per person to be named as victims of armed robberies in police reports. The foreign nationals would use the police reports as evidence that they qualified for U visa status, Van Hook said.
"In fact, the armed robberies never took place and those listed in the applications were never victims of crime," Van Hook said.
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Patel himself also received a U visa in 2023 after he said he was the victim of an armed robbery, according to the indictment.
There was an unusual concentration of reports of armed robberies with victims who were not from Louisiana, Van Hook said. Federal authorities have been investigating since last year, he said.
In February 2025, Patel approached a member of the Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office and paid or offered to pay $5,000 in exchange for another fake police report, prosecutors said in a statement. The Rapides Parish Sheriff's Office has been working with federal officials in the investigation, and that fraudulent report was never put to use, Van Hook said.
It's not clear whether authorities will take action against the people who obtained visas through the scheme. USA TODAY has reached out to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Louisiana.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Louisiana police chiefs charged in visa fraud scheme
Source: “AOL General News”
