Three current and previous police chiefs from Louisiana, a seafood of the United States and a businessman have been federally accused of participating in an immigrant visa fraud scheme, prosecutors announced Wednesday.
A Federal Grand Jury in Shreveport returned an accusation of 62 positions against five people on July 2, Julio’s prosecutor, Alexander Van Hook for the West District of Louisiana, at a press conference on Wednesday.
Police chiefs took bribes in exchange for presenting false police reports that would allow non -citizens to look for a visa that allows certain victims of the crime to remain in the United States, said Van Hook.
The five defendants are: Chad Doyle, Chief of Police in Oakdale; Michael Slaney, a marshal from the Marshal Office of Room 5 in Oakdale; Glynn Dixon, Chief of Police at Forest Hill; Tebo Onishea, the former police chief in Glenmora; and Chandrakant Patel, a businessman from Oakdale. Each one was accused of conspiracy to commit visa fraud and other positions, prosecutors said in a press release.
Patel was accused of a bribery charge, 24 postal fraud charges and eight money laundering charges.
Doyle and Dixon were accused of six positions of visa fraud, six postal fraud charges and a money laundering charge. Slaney was also accused of six positions of visa fraud, six postcard fraud and two money laundering charges. Onishea was also accused of six positions of visa fraud and six postal fraud charges.
For a decade, from December 2015 to at least this month, prosecutors alleged that Patel was a reparator who illegally acquired non -immigrants with the help of officials responsible for enforcing the law.
The non -immigrant state visa is for victims of certain crimes that help the application of law or government officials to investigate those crimes. Part of the application process includes a signature of an authorized official or agency to apply the law confirming that the individual was the victim of a qualified crime, prosecutors said.
People looking for visas or would contact patel to be appointed as “victims” in the police reports of an armed robbery, so that they could submit applications for the visas or, alleged the accusation.
These people supposedly paid Patel thousands of dollars to participate in the scheme, and Patel would ask alleged Conspirators Doyle, Slaney, Dixon and Onishea to write false police reports that name people as victims of armed robberies and provide certification and support documents, prosecutors said.
Together “they wrote, facilitated, produced and authenticated false police reports” in several parishes in the center of Louisiana, according to the press release.
“There was an unusual concentration of armed robberies, a lot of armed robberies of people who were not from Louisiana,” said Van Hook. “Well, in fact, armed robberies never took place, and those that appear in applications were never victims.”
Patel allegedly offered to pay an agent of the Sheriff’s office of the rapid parish $ 5,000 on February 18, “with the intention of influencing and rewarding said agent in exchange for a fraudulent police report,” prosecutors said.
Van Hook said Patel allegedly paid the agents of Law $ 5,000 for each foreign citizen placed in police reports, and that there were hundreds of such reports.
From September 27, 2023 to December 26, 2024, Doyle Slaney, Dixon and Onishea allegedly submitted false statements in immigration requests by signing I-918b forms despite knowing that people were never victims of crimes.
The investigation was opened after a tip last July of citizenship and immigration services, and was investigated by national security investigations, the FBI and IRS, together with the United States prosecutor’s office.
Van Hook said that men were arrested Tuesday by federal agents of application of the law and that the search warrants were executed in multiple locations, including the Oakdale and Forest Hill police departments, and a subway sandwiches store in Oakdale operated by Patel. The authorities said Wednesday that everyone was released except Patel.
No lawyer appeared for the defendants in the judicial file online. NBC News has communicated with the five men to comment.
The charge for fraud by mail comes from the five men who send documents for the postal service of the United States.
If he is convicted of the defendants, each of whom faces five years in prison for the position of conspiracy, up to 10 years for the position of fraud of the visa, up to 20 years with the position of postal fraud, and Patel up to 10 years the charge of bribery. They can also be ordered to pay a fine of $ 250,000 in each count.
Associated Press contributed reports.
