Police chief admits guilt in Louisiana visa scam; all 5 defendants have now pled guilty

A small town police chief admitted Tuesday to pocketing thousands of dollars in kickbacks to churn out bogus police reports, marking the fourth and final lawman to plead guilty in an immigration fraud case that has roiled central Louisiana since it became public last year.

Former Forest Hills Police Chief Glynn Dixon, one of four cops charged last summer under what federal prosecutors called a yearslong scheme to profit from bogus visa applications, entered a “guilty” plea Tuesday on a single count of conspiracy to commit visa fraud, court records show.

An attorney listed in court records as representing Dixon, Kevin Stockstill, did not immediately respond to an email and phone message.

The former chief initially denied the charges for which he was arrested last July alongside three other lawmen and an Oakdale-based businessman.

Federal prosecutors in a 62-count indictment accused the businessman, Chandrakant Patel, of illicitly paying Dixon, plus Glenmora Police Chief Tebo Onishea, Oakdale Police Chief Chad Doyle and Oakdale Marshal Michael Slaney to churn out bogus reports naming immigrants as violent crime victims. The immigrants then used the reports to apply for “U-visas” — papers for crime victims who cooperate with police investigations — with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, prosecutors said.

In an affidavit filed Tuesday in Alexandria federal court, Dixon admitted to generating at least 69 doctored reports for Patel between August 2023 and July 2025. But prosecutors said the broader scheme may have started years earlier.

Immigrants paid Patel, himself the recipient of U-visa issued in 2023, $20,000 to obtain a police report for them, prosecutors say. He then paid the lawmen around $5,000 per bogus report they generated.

The result, on paper, was what looked like a wave of violent crime across a typically sleepy swath of central Louisiana. (Forest Hill, the Rapides Parish hamlet where Dixon was chief, has a population of just over 600, according to Census data.)

Agents from U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service’s criminal investigations arm caught on when U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services flagged the huge flare in U-visa applications with corresponding police reports from the sparsely populated, rural area, officials have said.

Doyle, Onishea, Slaney and Patel each pleaded guilty recently under agreements with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Louisiana in several court hearings that came in quick succession, records show.

In Patel’s plea agreement from May 28, he admitted to orchestrating the scheme for at least five years beginning in 2020. He sought law enforcement collaborators to supply and certify the reports needed for U-visa applications, his agreement says.

He admitted to using proceeds from the scheme to buy gold bars, a Swiss Ingot watch, rings, several central Louisiana properties and other items.

The indictment and subsequent plea deals landed as President Donald Trump’s administration has de-prioritized federal law enforcement’s focus on public corruption and white collar criminal investigations, focusing instead on its broad immigration crackdown, plus violent crime and drug trafficking enforcement.

Still, law enforcement agents who investigated the central Louisiana case called the wave of guilty pleas a sign of accountability for public officials who breach the public trust.

“When anyone, including public officials, exploits immigration relief programs or commits fraud against the government, HSI and our law enforcement partners will investigate, dismantle these schemes, and work to bring those responsible to justice,” said Matt Wright, HSI’s New Orleans-based acting special agent in charge.

By admitting guilt, Patel acknowledged in his plea agreement that he faces revocation of his immigration status and deportation.