Federal prosecutors in Louisiana unsealed a 62-count indictment charging three current or former small-town police chiefs, a city marshal and a local businessman with orchestrating a years-long conspiracy to obtain U.S. visas for immigrants through fabricated crime reports. According to Acting U.S. Attorney Alexander C. Van Hook, the defendants accepted or facilitated $5,000 bribes for each false armed-robbery report, enabling “hundreds” of foreign nationals to apply for U-visas reserved for bona-fide crime victims who assist law-enforcement. The alleged fraud ran from December 2015 until this month and generated an unusual cluster of reported robberies in central Louisiana that never occurred. Businessman Chandrakant “Lala” Patel is accused of acting as a broker, funnelling payments to Oakdale Police Chief Chad Doyle, Forest Hill Police Chief Glynn Dixon, former Glenmora Police Chief Tebo Onishea and Oakdale Marshal Michael “Freck” Slaney. Patel faces conspiracy, bribery, 24 counts of mail fraud and eight counts of money laundering; the law-enforcement officers each face conspiracy, six counts of visa fraud, six counts of mail fraud and, in most cases, money-laundering charges. Homeland Security Investigations, the FBI and the IRS made the arrests on Tuesday after executing search warrants at two police departments, several homes and a Subway sandwich shop operated by Patel. All defendants were released pending trial except Patel, who remains in custody. Possible penalties include up to five years for conspiracy, ten years for visa fraud, twenty years for mail fraud and, for Patel, an additional ten years for bribery, with fines of up to $250,000 per count. Officials stressed that the allegations concern individual officers rather than their departments. The investigation continues, and authorities did not say whether recipients of the fraudulent documents will face charges or immigration consequences. The U-visa program, created by Congress in 2000, grants up to 10,000 visas annually to crime victims who cooperate with law enforcement.