A Mexican national in the Kansas City area pleaded guilty in federal court this week before U.S. District Judge Beth Phillips for a conspiracy to stage multiple armed robberies so that the purported victims, who were illegal aliens, could claim to be crime victims to fraudulently obtain visas.
On Jan. 30, 2025, Oscar Gutierrez, 36, of Kansas City, Mo., a citizen of Mexico, was charged in a criminal complaint filed under seal in the U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Mo.
The federal criminal complaint, which was unsealed and made public following Gutierrez’s arrest and initial court appearance, charged Gutierrez with participating in a conspiracy to fraudulently obtain immigration visas. On February 6, 2025, a federal grand jury indicted Gutierrez and co-defendant Jose Luis Morales Salgado on the same charges.
On March 31, 2026, Gutierrez pleaded guilty to conspiring to fraudulently obtain immigration visas for aliens. Gutierrez admitted that immigrants contacted Salgado to arrange for themselves to become “victims” of staged robberies so they could submit applications for U-Visas, which are granted to crime victims.
These immigrants, who were either illegally present in the United States or in the United States legally through work visas, allegedly paid Salgado thousands of dollars to participate. In exchange, Salgado told them the date, time, and location of the staged robbery.
Salgado previously pled guilty to his role in the conspiracy on March 23, 2026. In his plea hearing, Salgado admitted that he recruited individuals to pose as robbers during the staged robberies and provided directions to those individuals. One of the people Salgado recruited to pose as a robber was Gutierrez.
Salgado admitted that each robbery involved illegal aliens who later told police they had car trouble and pulled over and got out of their vehicle to diagnose the car trouble. Soon after stopping, another vehicle would arrive and park next to, or in front of, the purported victim’s vehicle. The robber, wearing a medical mask over his face and brandishing a firearm, would strike the purported victims in the head or face, take their cash, and typically fire two rounds into the purported victim’s vehicle.
In the guilty plea hearing, Investigators with the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department initially identified 11 incidents in which the reported robberies followed this pattern. These cases were linked to each other, based in part on leads generated from the National Integrated Ballistics Information Network. NIBIN used ballistic imaging technology to compare cartridge case markings on the expended cartridges from each crime scene. Detectives determined there was likely one firearm used in the commission of all of the robberies. Detectives gathered information from city cameras and license plate readers to identify the vehicles used in the robberies, the affidavit says, which led them to Gutierrez.
Salgado instructed the aliens to falsely report to law enforcement officials how the robberies occurred, and advised them how to make these false reports in an effort to bolster their applications for U-Visas.
The Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act was designed to strengthen the ability of law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute certain crimes while also protecting victims of crimes who are willing to help law enforcement authorities in the investigation or prosecution of the criminal activity. A foreign national is eligible for a U-Visa if he/she was the victim of qualifying criminal activity, suffered substantial physical or mental abuse as a result of having been a victim of the criminal activity, possessed information about the criminal activity, and was likely to be helpful to law enforcement in the investigation or prosecution of the crime.
During the guilty plea, Gutierrez admitted that he engaged in several of these fake robberies to bolster fraudulent U-visa applications for aliens.
According to court documents, a source told investigators the number of purported victims involved in the scheme was well over 100. Court documents also indicate that investigators identified 11 robberies involving 33 purported victims that occurred as part of the conspiracy between Dec. 29, 2021, and July 13, 2024. Of those 33 immigrants, 18 submitted U-Visa applications falsely claiming to be victims of violent crimes.
An undercover federal agent and a law enforcement source met with Salgado on Jan. 22, 2025, and recorded their meeting. The undercover agent made arrangements to pay Salgado $4,000 for a robbery to be staged to fraudulently obtain a U-Visa. Salgado told the undercover agent he would “put on a grand show.” Once the plans were agreed upon, the undercover agent paid Salgado $500 with a promise to pay the balance later. The undercover agent met with Salgado again on Thursday, Jan. 30, and Salgado was arrested.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Trey Alford. It was investigated by the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and Homeland Security Investigations.
This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations, and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime.