Four high-ranking police officers in Louisiana have pleaded guilty in connection with a decade-long visa fraud scheme spearheaded by a migrant from India that offered illegal aliens legal immigration status for cash payments.
“These defendants’ disgraceful fraud endangered our community and undermined the public trust in the immigration system solely to line their own pockets,” United States Attorney Zachary A. Keller said in a June 30 press release.
The police officers who pleaded guilty include Glynn Dixon, the former Forest Hill Police chief; Tebo Onishea, chief of the Glenmora Police Department; Chad Doyle, Oakdale’s police chief; and Oakdale Ward 5 Marshal Michael Slaney. Each was charged with conspiracy to commit visa fraud and mail fraud and faces up to five years in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Louisiana.
Prosecutors also arrested Indian national Chandrakant Patel and fingered him as the mastermind of the migrant scam. Patel faces up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted.
The conspiracy scheme involved the U-Visa program in which migrants are given legal U.S. residency if they report serious crimes to the police. Congress launched the U-Visa program in the year 2000 to encourage members of migrant communities to report serious crimes in their neighborhoods without fear of deportation as a way to help make them feel safer when reporting crimes. The program also aims to help police departments bust criminals in areas in which they often do not get much help from witnesses.
But prosecutors say Patel conspired with the four high-ranking Louisiana police to defraud the program.
Prosecutors say the fraud began sometime in December of 2015 and continued to 2025 when investigators began arresting the alleged participants. Patel allegedly worked with his law enforcement partners to file false reports of armed robberies that never occurred under the names of illegal aliens who paid Patel thousands for each filing. The migrants then used the reports to file for the protective U-Visas to gain permanent residence. Patel’s law enforcement partners would then certify the validity of the false reports when federal authorities contacted them for confirmation. Much of the paperwork, prosecutors added, was sent through the U.S. Postal service, prompting the mail fraud charges.
United States Attorney Zachary A. Keller added:
These guilty pleas confirm the depth of corruption uncovered here and the strength of the evidence developed during an incredible investigation by our law enforcement partners working together, and our Office looks forward to advocating for prison time for each defendant that reflects the seriousness of the crimes they committed.
“Mr. Patel and his law enforcement co-conspirators corrupted the process that helps actual victims of violent crime to allow people to remain in our country under an alleged fraud,” Special Agent in Charge Jonathan Tapp of the FBI’s New Orleans Field Office said. “The FBI will continue to work with our federal partners and the U.S. Attorney’s Office to ensure people who engage in this type of corrupt criminal activity are brought to justice.”
Patel is also accused of trying to bribe a Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office agent with $5,000 in February of 2025 to file a false armed robbery report.
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