Louisiana mayor arrested in connection with drug trafficking investigation

One of the US’s youngest municipal mayors was arrested on Tuesday morning in connection with a drug trafficking investigation by authorities in his home state of Louisiana.

The charges against Tyrin Truong, who was 23 when he was elected as mayor of the city of Bogalusa in 2022, include engaging in transactions involving proceeds from drug offenses and the illicit solicitation of sex work.

Truong is among seven defendants charged in the investigation conducted by Louisiana state police and the Bogalusa police department beginning in April 2024.

According to a statement from the state police, investigators allege that Truong and the others collectively used “social media platforms to distribute [drugs illegally] and manage payments” for them, “further expanding their reach and criminal activity”.

“The investigation also determined that profits from drug sales were used to purchase firearms,” the state police’s statement continued. Some of those guns were then funneled to people who could not legally possess those weapons – and others “were linked to violent crimes in the Bogalusa area”, the statement added.

Truong, now 25, faces counts of transactions involving proceeds from drug offenses, unauthorized use of movable property and soliciting for prostitutes.

Colin Sims, the Louisiana district attorney whose jurisdiction includes Bogalusa, on Tuesday alleged that Truong “organized entertainment with a” sex worker at a short-term rental home that he rented with public funds as he attended a mayor’s conference in Atlanta.

Six others from Bogalusa also are charged with transactions involving drug-related proceeds. They are MacKenzie Lynn Cefalu, 24; De-Saleem Wali Pittman, 24; Dirul S Pittman, 22; Salehal-Dien Malike Pittman, 26; Tonya Renee Stage, 51; and Devan Michael Williams, 28.

De-Saleem Pittman is accused of distributing illegal drugs and that defendant, Cefalu, Stage and Williams are accused of plotting to do so.

State police said the drugs at the center of the case included opioids; MDMA, sometimes colloquially referred to as ecstasy; high-grade marijuana; and THC products. In Louisiana, marijuana is only legal for medicinal use, and some types of THC products have not been legalized.

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Truong, a Democrat, pulled off what was considered an upset victory when he won the mayor’s seat of Bogalusa by defeating the independent incumbent Wendy Perrette. Having graduated from Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, with a degree in African American studies, Truong was the youngest mayor in the history of the 111-year-old city, which has a population of about 10,000.

The Black grandson of a Vietnamese immigrant who fought in the Vietnam war, Truong later told the Louisiana Illuminator that his priorities were to decrease crime and corruption in Bogalusa, which in 2008 had made unflattering national headlines after a woman who had just been initiated into a local chapter of the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan organization was shot to death.

The city was where a civil rights march to Louisiana’s capital of Baton Rouge – protesting racism against Black people – began with 25 demonstrators in 1967. It eventually grew to 600 participants, who faced significant local hostility and needed protection from more than 2,000 members of the state national guard and police officers, according to information from the US civil rights trail’s website.

Truong encountered troubled political waters in April when he received a letter from Louisiana’s legislative auditor informing him that the city’s government had fallen out of compliance with state audit laws. The municipal government had not turned in its 2022 audited financial statement, which was due about six months after Truong took office in January 2023.

That left Bogalusa – which is about 73 miles (117km) north of New Orleans – unable to legally receive state money, grants or federal dollars that would support infrastructure, recreation and law enforcement services.

In a written response, Truong argued that his predecessor did not facilitate a proper transition.

Truong did not immediately comment on the authorities’ allegations against him. He had delivered Bogalusa’s state of the city address just four days before his arrest – and said he was elected at an age when many people are still learning “valuable life lessons”.

“I am not different,” Truong said. “I appreciate the trust and confidence you have placed in me, and I don’t take it lightly. Every day, we aim to get better.

“And I ask that we all extend more grace to one another. Mistakes will be made – as they have been. But I was always taught that you get back up, brush it off and apply the lesson for [the] future.”

By Tuesday morning, there was a large law enforcement presence outside Truong’s home. He was soon listed as being among the people detained at the local jail.

Sims said later on Tuesday: “We are going to continue to invest time and resources into helping the citizens of Bogalusa. We are not finished.”

Ramon Antonio Vargas and WWL Louisiana’s Kenny Kuhn contributed reporting

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